Nine Tales of a Storyteller
by FireflyEmbers
Summary: It's a race against time to find all nine tails of the Kitsune, Demora, before both the normal world and the magical world of Believe are destroyed... but where are they all hiding, and more importantly, who will Toby have to face to get them?
1. Prologue

**(( AN: **Welcome to the third book in the series, following An Accidental Princess and The Princess and the Plan. You don't have to have read the other two books to enjoy this one (though it does help!).

Updates may be even spottier than the other two books because 99% of my time is divided between my job and my new dog, but I hope you'll stick with me anyway. As always, I love to hear what you think -- comments, critiques, thoughts, anything! Just drop me a line either through the reviews or a private message.

Now sit back, and enjoy!** ))**

**Prologue.**

Wisps of gossamer clouds drifted across the cerulean sky, their travels interupted by the jagged tips of the white-capped mountains stretching almost unendingly towards the pale yellow sun. A pleasant breeze curled its way through the lush green grass, making the stalks dip and sway in a silent, euphoric dance. The zephyr tugged at his sleeves, carressing his cheek, and causing the scroll he held to flutter in a thinly-veiled attempt to free itself to frisk along to the carefree wind's calling.

Over the soft breath of the breeze, he could hear the rustle of feathers and didn't need to turn to see who had joined him.

_Is that what your meditations have granted you?_

He continued to inspect the rough brush strokes marring the smooth plan of the scroll in his hand, nodding once. "It is."

The tall being moved forward another step, lowering his feathered head to inspect the scroll as well. Golden feathers glimmered a burnished amber in the sunlight, the swift curve of his deep brown beak a strong line despite the softness of his feathers. Green eyes of a hue to rival the grass around them focused their vertical slits in consideration even as wide paws crowned with impressively curved talons flexed against the cool ground.

The old man didn't disturb his companion's contemplation, simply waited until the Gryphon had discerned what he would from the ebony ink.

_Do you see what I see?_

The man's lips tweaked in an amused smirk. "I see Death, if that is what you are so mysteriously skirting, Ambrosius."

The long crest feathers at the back of the Gryphon's head flexed, then flattened as abruptly, accompanied by a low hiss of displeasure. _You speak of it so glibly. It is not just Death I see, but the Visitor._

"Yes, and the Book."

_The Elf Queen named a new Storyteller, Mur._

Mur lowered the scroll in his gnarled hands to regard Ambrosius intently, his blue eyes twinkling merrily underneath his heavy brows, the thick lines etched into his weathered skin crinkling.

"Shall I say it?"

The Gryphon flattened his crest-feathers at the old man again, sharp eyes bearing into the man's. _Two thousand years, Mur. One would think that such time would learn you the fallacies of gloating._

Mur _hrmph_ed deep in his throat, briskly rolling the scroll up and shoving it into the fold of his robes. "I wasn't going to. Besides," he continued, bending to collect the brushes and ink stones at his feet, carefully stowing them into their indents in the silk-lined boxes that he'd brought with him.

Straightening once more, he turned to look squarely at his companion. "We've already met." The Gryphon continued to watch him as the man turned, his feet finding their way onto the worn stones of the path out of the garden.

_She hasn't met you_.

"And when I hadn't met her, she had met me. One would almost find a riddle in it, if they looked carefully enough," Mur replied with a laugh, a cracking sound that shook his thin shoulders and made him pause for a moment in his travels. The Gryphon kept pace with him, his wings tucked carefully against the smooth fine feathers of his strong sides. His feather-tipped tail lashed once, the only betrayal of the big being's worry.

_You make light of this when there is only one possible outcome for the lines you have drawn._

"A book, a visitor, death. It's very clear what the ink is telling me, Ambrosius. The only issue is... how long?"

His robes made the softest whisper on the smooth stone of the monastery as they left the sun-bathed gardens behind them, entering the cool archways of the quiet, elegant buildilngs, weathered marble statues peeking at them from between tall pillars as they walked, the man shuffling along, the Gryphon making not even a whisper as he kept pace.

_Does it matter? Time is inevitable._

"One could make a case for a great many things that are inevitable yet not necessarily imminent." He paused, thoughtfully. "Sister Lotusblossom's porridge, for example. Inevitable, as soon as the morn is come once more. Imminent? Perhaps not as yet. First we must muck our way through Brother Yao's too-strong tea at evening repass."

_I would also make a case for your inability to take anything without making light of it inevitable as well... and much more imminent._

Mur burst into laughter once more, raising his cracked hand to brush aside a rich silk curtain, moving inside the room. The golden Gryphon remained outside, gazing down the ornate hallway towards the distant glimmer of sunlight. Soon dusk would fall over the mountains and their quiet valley nestled between. Soon another day would end, bringing them one more nightfall closer to the characters Mur had been drawing every day with increasing clarity.

The Gryphon lowered his head.

_It is my heart's deep wish that your hands would draw something other than Death, old friend..._

Mur emerged from the back room, one hand raised towards his chest where around his neck hung a golden key, glistening even in the dim light of the inner room. He didn't say anything, simply gazed at his friend and long-time companion, seeming suddenly as old as the lines in his face betrayed him to be. Reaching out, he put a hand on the Gryphon's strong shoulder, a sad smile hovering about his lips.

"Mine as well, old friend... Mine as well."


	2. Chapter 1

**1.**

"You're going to have to do it, there's no other way."

The trio stood shadowed in darkness cast by the trunk of the large oak tree, the star-scattered sky barely visible through its broad leaves. Snatches of moonlight flitted across the young man's face as he frowned, lowering his head in thought. The red-head next to him folded her arms over her chest, glaring daggers at the other young woman, a slim brunette.

"You realize what you're asking -- the _cost_ of what you're proposing. It's... it's ridiculous!"

"Look, it's not like we have any other way around it. The _world_ is _ending_. He has to do this."

"She's right..." the young man said in a strained voice, reaching up and pressing a hand to his forehead. "There's no other way..."

"You can't be serious, Thane! She has no idea what she's asking!" Devon protested.

"If you're so concerned, you could always do it," Toby observed drily, a statement that made the red-head press her lips together in a huff.

"No. It has to be me." Thane took in a deep breath as Toby reached out, putting a supportive hand on his shoulder. He squared his shoulders, swallowed hard, and turned to look up at the window above them that was still slightly cracked, pink gauze curtains fluttering in the light breeze.

"I'll give that little girl a dragon ride, just like she wanted."

Toby followed his gaze, squeezing his shoulder. "You're doing this for the good of the world. Just keep that in mind. And... be careful. I mean, _really_ careful. Kids have all sorts of crazy germs."

"Great. He's going to get the plague and then we'll really be in trouble," Devon muttered under her breath.

Toby considered pointing out that they hadn't had a problem with the bubonic plague in hundreds of years but then decided it wasn't worth the effort. "Don't forget to get the pebble," she called after Thane as he walked briskly away from the tree, leaving her and Devon standing in the shadows still.

"I really hope he doesn't squeeze too hard..."

Toby looked over at Devon half in alarm, half in disbelief, as across the lawn, a large black dragon with subtly shimmering rainbows in his scales gently poked his head into the pink curtained window.

A moment later he withdrew his head and raised one clawed paw towards the window, palm up. A little girl of no more than five or six, dressed in a pink night gown and with a teddy bear clamped under one arm, climbed out into the rudimentary seat that was formed, wrapping her stubby little arms around Thane's thumb claw. He lowered his head towards her again and Toby could hear her chatter in response to his telepathic speech, high pitched and jittery with excitement.

_Hold on, little one!_ Thane called and with one massive beat of his wings, propelled them high into the sky.

Toby lost sight of them amongst the darkness of the stars quickly, despite the ever-present prismatic shimmer to Thane's scales. After a few more minutes of futile searching, she sighed and sat down, slinging the leather backpack she wore into her lap. It seemed like an eternity since they'd left the halls of the Fairy Court at Avalon to embark on their crazy quest, but it'd barely been a week. So much had happened in so little time, leaving both the mundane world and the world of fairy tale creatures called Believe in shambles.

Unclipping the latch, Toby opened the pack to reveal the weathered and ancient-looking cover of her Tome, a magical item that connected her to the Story, the mystical and rather confusing driving force behind much of what happened in Believe and the normal world, as the Storyteller.

Storyteller. Hah, she had no better idea of what that actually entailed than she had when Gem, the Queen of the Elves, had bestowed the title upon her over a week ago. It was that same day that she'd discovered that her nemesis, the former Fairy Queen Rosepink, had set into a motion a plan that would result in the destruction of both the normal world and the magical world connected to it if Toby and her squad of dragons didn't stop it in time. She only hoped that the current King of the Fairies, Fizzybink, and the others they'd left behind in Avalon would be able to ensure that war didn't break out in the mean time. Believe and all of its denizens had lain dormant for thousands of years, but were now waking up, thanks to the restoration of the Princesses that kept Believe's citizens from hibernating any longer.

"Here they come," the tall red-head at Toby's side murmured. Toby closed the pack around the Tome again, slinging it onto her back as she stood once more. Her hand rested on the hilt of her sword, Skysyr, as she strained to spot the dragon's large form. His body was longer than a school bus; it boggled her mind that something so large could move so gracefully, much less get and remain airborn for any length of time.

The soft flap of wings drew her attention once more as Thane touched down in front of the window again as lightly as a falling leaf. Raising his paw to the window once more, Toby could see the girl climb out of his palm and disappear inside. Thane waited patiently, rewarded a moment later by the little girl reappearing. She leaned out of the window, gesturing for Thane to come close. He raised his slim muzzle to her and she kissed the very tip of it, then held out her hand. As delicately as if he was sipping dew from a rose petal, he took the proffered item between his lips, then withdrew.

Toby could see the little girl waving from the window as Thane walked back towards them, making no noise despite how massive he was.

_Got it,_ he said as he reached them, his voice a symphony of brassy peals and bold resonations. He lowered his head, carefully dropping what he'd received from the little girl in Toby's palm. The brunette found herself gazing at a small, sparkling, but otherwise nondescript pebble.

"That's it?" Devon demanded, leaning over to inspect the little rock. "That's a rock, that's not what we need at all!"

_If you had been paying attention to our discussion last night at the hotel instead of running your mouth off to that leather-clad thug you would know that Demora's tails have taken the shape of what the person around them wants most at that point in time. For this little girl, it was something pretty. Thus, this sparkling little pebble,_ Thane stated in a calm voice. The glare that Devon shot him made Toby very, very glad that it was him that was earning Devon's ire and not herself.

"How do we know it's really a tail, then?"

_Like this,_ Thane said, leaning over Toby's hand. His lips parted and he exhaled fire, the pale white flames like gossamer licks of moonlight. The brunette stiffened in surprise but found that the fire felt warm on her skin but not hot, lapping around her hand without being even slightly uncomfortable or painful. The pebble itself, however, began to glow, then abruptly seemed to burst into fire of a pale white-blue color. Toby recognized the color as the same as Demora's fire, or kitsune-bi.

"Then we have our first one," Toby breathed, closing her hand around the pebble.

_Put it in the bag with your Tome. That way it'll be safe,_ Thane instructed and Toby nodded. She dropped to one knee, slinging the bag in front of her to tuck the stone in the front pouch. Her fingers lingered on the pack for a moment.

_Eight more to go_, she thought. Eight more tails to discover before they had any hope of stopping the process that Rosepink had begun. The former Fairy Queen had been obsessed with perfection and in her eyes the connection between the normal world and her magical homeworld had been unacceptable. She'd sought out each of Believe's Princesses in order to make them Doubt, and by doing so had severed their bond to the Story's magic. By doing so, she'd hoped to eliminate any dependancy Believe had on the normal world and thus achieve what she'd believed would be a perfect world.

Instead, Toby had come along, and in a strange freak accident had qualified to be the next Princess in the eyes of the Story. Her single accidental coronation had ruined Rosepink's plan and now the process that the obsessed Fairy had begun was spinning out of control and would ultimately destroy both Believe and the normal world.

The only being in the entire world who knew how to stop the process was the very one that Rosepink had used to begin it -- a nine-tailed Kitsune named Demora. But Rosepink had chopped off Demora's tails and scattered them across both Believe and the normal world to prevent anyone from realizing her plan. It was up to Toby and her four dragon escorts to locate each of the tails and retrieve them before both of their worlds were destroyed.

They had no more than two months to do so; it'd taken nearly half a week to just find one.

Toby's stomach knotted at the thought, but she forced herself not to think about it. They would just have to search harder, find the next ones faster. Much, _much_ faster.

"Let's get out of here before they call those police things on us. They're way more trouble than they're worth," Devon muttered, rolling one shoulder as her crimson eyes flitted around them searchingly.

"You're right. We need to get back to Edolie and Edlyn and head for the next tail," Toby replied, settling the back squarely on her shoulders. At the dragons' surprised looks, she continued, "I know you're tired, Devon, but you need to get us as close as you can. Then Edolie, Edlyn and I can search for the next tail while you and Thane rest."

She looked between the both of them, her lips set determinedly. "We don't have much time. We've got one. We need eight more and that means we have to work a lot harder than we are."

_ Toby's right. Both worlds depend on us. Come, let us return to the hotel. We have another tail to find._

Toby shot Thane a grateful look for not arguing with her decision to keep moving instead of resting. He simply inclined his wedge-shaped head once in acknowledgement, then raised one paw to form a seat for her. Ignoring the protesting her stomach was doing at the idea of being several thousand feet off the ground, she sat down, wrapping her arms firmly around one of Thane's talons.

"Ready--" she began, but even before she'd finished speaking, Thane had launched them into the sky and the rush of the wind took her voice.


	3. Chapter 2

**(( Have a nice long one, in apology for taking so long to update again! ))**

**2.**

The moment the glass door swung open, the neatly-tended lobby of the hotel fell ominously silent, a dozen pairs of eyes following the three of them as they entered. It'd been nearly the same everywhere they went; there wasn't a soul on the planet that hadn't either heard or heard of Julie's press conference. While Toby herself might have been able to escape notice as anything other than a normal human, there was simply no denying the other-worldliness of her companions. Just one look at their swirling, luminous eyes and it was obvious even to the most obtuse that there was something.. different about them.

Not everyone had bought Julie's tale, however. The large majority of the world held their place firmly in the skeptical or flat-out disbelieving category and, honestly, Toby couldn't blame them. Fairy tale creatures? Magic? Princesses? It was all something out of a kid's afterschool special, and the fact that the world governments had been strangely silent on the whole topic wasn't helping their case much either.

So everyone stared at them. Some with more hostility than others, depending on how far along the 'trouble-making freaks' continuum they decided to place Toby and her escorts. If they were lucky, there'd be a few stares full of hushed awe and delight amongst the crowd, if only because then Toby didn't have to pretend to ignore the half-whispered insults tossed behind them. They didn't bother Toby much, but if she had to restrain Devon from throwing one more person through one more window, the brunette was quite convinced she'd scream.

They rounded the corner to where their rooms were and found the twins already sitting outside with a meager pile of luggage between them. Edolie and Edlyn were mirror images of each other, with brilliant emerald hair and one golden eye and one green eye each. Not to mention a headache-inducing penchant for the mysterious and mysteriously omniscient.

"We figured it'd be best and-"

"-most efficient, considering-"

"-Devon would have taken an hour to pack," Edolie finished, with a too-sweet smile in the ruby dragon's direction. Devon just snorted in her typical annoyed fashion.

"May we?" Edlyn directed towards Toby, holding her hand out, waiting palm up. Toby stared for a moment before she registered the unspoken request, fumbling for the pocket in the front of the leather pack. Withdrawing the small, sparkling pebble, she reached out and placed it gently in the green-haired dragon's palm.

"Thank you," Edolie said politely, reaching out and placing her hand on top of Edlyn's. The two inhaled as one, then exhaled, opening their hands so they formed a cup. There, instead of a sparkling pebble, was a small silver charm in the shape of a fox's tail.

"Wha-" Toby began, but Edlyn cut her off by raising her other hand. On her palm lay a silver charm bracelet and her twin wasted no time in affixing the silver charm to the shining links of the charm bracelet.

"We enchanted it so that it will never break nor will it be removed but by your hand alone," Edolie explained, reaching for Toby's hand to fasten the bracelet around her wrist. The brunette allowed it, then lifted her hand to take a closer look at the bracelet. It was pretty, though the sight of the single charm hanging from it, with the knowledge they had so much further to go, was depressing in its own right.

"Good work, Edlyn, Edolie," Thane said in his low, smooth voice, bending to begin hoisting bags onto his shoulders. They didn't have much, all things considered. Out of five bags, two were Toby's own. Thane had explained to her that dragons could generate just about anything they wanted when they shape shifted, including clothes and accessories.

"Why can't Theo, then?" Toby asked, remembering the last time Theo had shifted and how he'd had to pull on a pair of clothes. Thane had hesitated, then, in a peculiarly careful voice, replied, "he has not had the opportunity to maximize his abilities."

When pressed as to what he meant, he'd simply gone frustratingly silent and eventually even Toby had given up.

Thane reached for the two bags that were Toby's and the brunette quickly moved to grab them before he could shoulder them. He shot her a look that quite clearly said he'd been prepared to carry them, but Toby ignored it, shrugging the bags onto her shoulders. Truth be told, Thane's attention made her slightly uncomfortable. She had the feeling that no matter what she asked of him, he'd say yes or find a way to do it for her. That sort of ready attentiveness reminded her all too firmly of Dominic, the friend she'd grown up with whose love she couldn't return.

"Shall we get going then?" Toby prompted, as much to move them along as to avoid any attempts to discuss her carrying her own bags.

"Let's head out the back door. I saw a sheltered area that will suit our needs well enough," Thane replied, gesturing with one hand towards the door down the hallway, a crimson EXIT sign flickering atop its doorframe.

Toby rummaged in her leather bag in search of her compass, being quite careful not to brush the pages of the Tome while she did so. Any time she did, she found herself jerked from wherever she was and immersed in a bit of the nearest person's life - a piece of their Story. It was disconcerting and gave Toby a headache.

One of the twins turned to peer at her. "Do you wish me to aid you?" she asked sweetly.

A familiar ache settled just behind Toby's eyes, making her blink rapidly to clear her sight, her knuckles resting against the worn leather of the Tome. A snippet of conversation rang in her ears, ebbing in and out as violently as a wave crashing on the shore.

_"-tell which one of us, Mother? Am I Edolie or-"_

Toby snatched the compass out of the bag, slammed the lid shut, and flung it onto her back. Willing the echoes to fade as quickly as they could, she didn't realize that the twin - Edolie, Toby was sure - was still staring at her until she'd spoken Toby's name again, questioningly.

"No... no. I'm fine. Thanks," Toby managed, annoyed at how brusque her tone was.

The green- and gold-eyed twin stared at her sadly. The other turned to Thane. "It's getting worse. It's affecting her from further away."

The twin still looking at Toby intently added, over her shoulder, "soon doubtless physical proximity will no longer be required."

Having reached the same conclusion already, Toby found herself angry that the twins were discussing it so ... nonchalantly. "Great." When Thane looked as if he was going to speak, she plunged on ahead. "I don't want to talk about it. We've got a tail to find, now let's go. C'mon, Devon, don't be so slow."

The red-haired dragon's eyes swirled a brighter red with indignation. "I'm _ahead_ of you, girly." Snorting, she shoved through the door so hard it slammed against the building. Immediately Thane turned to chastise her and the attention was gone from Toby, just as she'd hoped.

Shrugging the pack higher up onto her shoulders, she followed the pair - now thoroughly engaged in a heated discussion centering around Devon's inability to exercise self-control - out into the night air and across the parking lot. The small, slightly run down town was actually not too far from where Toby had lived and grown up. It was odd, thinking that something as magical as a tail from one of the oldest and most powerful Kitsune around had found its way into such a quiet, dinky little town. _I suppose I shouldn't be surprised,_ Toby thought to herself. _Believe has so far managed to invade almost every aspect of my life._

Gravel crunching under her sneakers soon gave way to some off-green straggling blades of grass as they left the pavement of the parking lot and headed towards a small copse of trees. The thin stand wasn't nearly big enough or dense enough to hide the dragons from sight, but hopefully it would offer them just enough privacy that they could get out of there before anyone saw.

They'd made the mistake of shifting in a public area a couple of days ago. After the cops from the mall down the street had shown up, waving their guns and yelling something about disturbing the peace, Thane had let loose a roar that had shattered several nearby windows and stunned everyone into complete silence long enough for the dragons to take wing. Their lesson learned, they made sure that if any of the dragons needed to be in their true form, that they did it under cover of nightfall or far enough away to avoid making another scene.

Toby wasn't quite sure when she'd lost touch with the reality of the rest of the world that she hadn't thought to make that a rule ahead of time.

"Toby, direction?"

Thane's voice cut through her reverie and she fumbled for the compass she'd put in her pocket, flipping it open to rest it on her palm. Closing her eyes, she focused on the words that were already indelibly etched into her brain.

_I want you to direct me to the closest tail of the Kitsune Demora. Please._

The small compass, wooden in nature with an intricate rose design carved into the wood below the needle, quivered in Toby's palm as the needle spun wildly for several seconds, then abruptly came to a halt pointing in one direction. Devon reached over, touching the tip of the needle with her finger, then nodded once.

"All right, keep it steady, girly."

Her eyes suddenly brilliant and glowing in the darkness of the night, she stretched her head back and began to shift. It was like someone was pouring pure _dragon_ into the cup that was _human_, crimson hues billowing across Devon's skin and sparkling into scales as she grew, arched, and spread glittering wings and sinuous tail. Thane and the twins remained in their human forms. One dragon and several humans still made a fuss if they appeared in front of anyone, but it was far less of a fuss than one human and four dragons did.

_Ready?_ Devon asked, lowering her wedge shaped head to consider Toby, her eyes a swirling maelstrom of crimson and scarlet hues.

Toby cupped the compass in both of her hands and scrunched her forehead in focus. "Yes."

A breeze fluttered across Toby's cheeks as the dragon sucked in a deep breath, then parted her great maw. Ruby fire leaped from between her glistening teeth, swirling around them and whipping higher and higher, until it blocked from sight everything around them. The brunette just kept focusing on the compass, feeling the now-familiar sensation of falling, despite her feet being still firmly planted on the ground.

When it'd faded and she'd tumbled back into the hold of gravity as it should be, she opened her eyes. Trees stretched over head - real, tall, fully branched trees, not the stunted ones ekeing out an existance outside a hotel and strip mall. It was still night and what looked like a temperate forest, so they hadn't gone too far. The real question was how far they still had to go.

"Another hop, or flying?" she asked, turning to look over her shoulder at Thane. The obsidian dragon was considering the terrain ahead of them, his nose flaring as he sniffed at the air.

"Neither, I think," he replied.

"What-" Toby began, but, once again, cut herself off. "Nevermind. Walking, then?" She shifted the bags on her shoulders, quietly regretting her stubborn decision not to let Thane carry them for her. The dragon simply nodded once, then began to walk forward, picking his way through the foilage and trees carefully.

Human once more, Devon followed him, with Edlyn and Edolie not too far behind. So much for them getting any sort of rest, Toby thought wryly as she picked up her pace, hurrying to keep up with the rest of them. No way did she want to be left alone in some unknown forest in the middle of the night.

They walked for what seemed to Toby to be an inordinately long amount of time, between the haunting night noises that kept making the brunette glance over her shoulder and the niggling feeling in the back of her mind that they weren't alone. She kept brushing it off, telling herself very resolutely that the dragons at the very least would be able to tell if there was something - or someone - out there watching them.

_Hopefully,_ the morbid part of Toby kept adding.

She was in the middle of musing whether or not coyotes and bears would know better enough than to attack the dragons when she nearly ran into Edolie's back. Or was it Edlyn's? Well, one of the twins. They'd both stopped, peering past each other to where Thane and Devon were peeking through the bushes.

"What is it?" Toby hissed. Thane glanced over at her thoughtfully, then gestured indicating that she should come up and see for herself.

Picking her way through the underbrush carefully, Toby stepped up next to the black-haired young man, pulling a branch down and out of her way so she could see.

The light cast from the moon illuminated the clearing in front of them with a ghostly light, but it was enough for Toby to see the form slumbering in the middle of it clearly enough. It - he - whatever - was _huge_, stretched out on his back with his head resting on the trunk of a fallen tree like it was a pillow. His cavernous chest rose and fell rhythmically, his sonorous snoring so low and deep that Toby more felt it than heard it.

Toby didn't need magical help to know exactly what it was that was sleeping so soundly in front of her. She'd fought one only a month or so ago, though it'd felt like forever ago.

"Great," Devon snorted. "A giant."

"Perhaps the tail is on the other side of the giant," Edolie offered reasonably. Toby pulled the compass from her pocket, muttering a desperate hope underneath her breath as she fumbled the top open and held it up for them all to see.

The arrow pointed quite determinedly at the slumbering giant.

"Look, there," Thane prompted, touching Toby's shoulder and pointing towards the sleeping giant. There, on his stomach, was a rock, shimmering softly with every color imaginable. "That's it, I know it."

"Great. First a germ-coated little girl with a shiny pebble. Now a three story shambling imbecile with ridiculous strength, no brain, and a shiny rock. It'd be nice if someone who found one of these damn tails would think of something other than _gee I want something sparkly_," Devon hissed.

Toby sighed. "Worst of it all, I'm betting it won't be as easy as 'want a dragon ride?' to get it from him."

As one, the four of them turned to look at Thane. He blinked once, then shot them all the sternest, most no-nonsense look he could. "Not funny. Go ahead and make yourselves comfortable. There's no waking a sleeping giant until he wakes of his own accord, so you all might as well get a quick nap. I'll take first watch."

Toby eyed the leaf- and dirt-covered forest floor and sighed, lifting the pack that held the Tome off of her shoulder.

_I miss the hotel already_, she thought, picking a nice tree to lean against and settling down. Despite how uncomfortable and cold the ground was, she was also exhausted, and only a few minutes later sleep snuck in and she slipped into its dark embrace.


	4. Chapter 3

**3.**

_"I wish your hands would draw something other than death, old friend." The old man was bald, wrinkled, and ancient looking, clad in robes that Toby had only ever seen in drawings of ancient Buddhist monks and the like. He spread his hands, smiling sadly at her in response to the voice that had come that was not hers. _

_"We both knew this day would come. When the visitor comes, you know what we both must do..." He lowered his hands, his face etched with deep lines of sadness._

_"You don't understand!" A young woman's voice cut through the air from behind her and she whipped around, finding herself face to face with a tall, dark-haired, storm-eyed woman, her face wrinkled with fury and fear. "The orb keeps the water at bay - it keeps us all safe. If you take it, you're destroying _everything!_"_

_"No, I wouldn't-" Toby protested. Then it wasn't the young woman standing in front of her, but Theo, a gash across his forehead and blood running down the right side of his face. She clutched at his wrist, desperate to keep him from going, desperate to keep him there with her. With a strength that she knew she couldn't match, he pulled free from her grasp, turning to his side. "It's up to us," he said to the figure at his side and reached out one hand._

_Then he was gone. _

_"THEO!" _

She sat up so quickly she nearly slammed her forehead into Thane's nose; only the hands he had on her cheeks kept him safe and pain-free. Her breath rasped, ragged and insubstantial, in her chest, not doing anything to calm the panicked racing of her heart. It was thudding so loudly in her ears that it took her several minutes to realize that the reason Thane's lips kept moving was that he was _talking_ to her. Fighting to focus on his lips, to hear above the crazed cadence of her insides, she gripped his wrists with her hands, finally catching the words he was speaking.

"-'s all right. You're dreaming. That's all it is, a bad dream."

Toby's eyes darted past Thane to find the other three dragons watching her, varying degrees of pity etched on their faces. It seemed like ever since she'd been given the title of Storyteller she'd seen that look far too often.

"Fine," she finally managed, releasing Thane's wrists and managing to sit up of her own accord. "I'm fine."

Thane looked as if he was going to question it, but the look she shot him caused the question to die on his lips. Instead he simply nodded once and withdrew his hands, assuming a more business-like demeanor. "It's time you get up and going. He's awake." He gestured towards the clearing just barely visible beyond the obscuring scrub. Through the branches, Toby could see hints of movement and realized that the Giant must be moving about.

Glad for the subject change, especially since it wasn't revolving around her or her slowly increasing 'crazy' status, she got to her feet, brushing her pants off. "Has anyone approached him yet?"

"Edolie and Edlyn are entertaining him. He's quite..." Thane cast about for an appropriate word even as he handed the leather-encased Tome to Toby. When the brunette hesitated visibly, his eyes narrowed at her, only continuing when she finally reached out and took it from him. "... engaged by the idea of two tiny beings who look exactly alike."

_Great. A Giant that's never seen twins. This is going to go well,_ Toby thought viciously as she pulled the satchel on. "All right, let's do this."

Thane nodded once, turning and heading through the sparsely-leafed bushes and out into the open space beyond. Toby hurried to keep up with him. The last thing she needed was to be fixed with another one of those _looks_ of his; they made her squirm inside and out.

Edolie and Edlyn were perched on the very tree trunk that the Giant had been just recently using as a pillow, the red-haired form of Devon hovering protectively in the shadow of the roots to one side. The Giant himself was crouched in front of the green-haired dragon twins, squinting one eye then the other as he inspected them. He was easily two stories tall, but unlike the last Giant that Toby had encountered, was weaponless and armorless. Instead, he wore what looked quite suspiciously like a collection of various animal pelts strapped around his midsection and torso, a large sack containing an odd collection of items sitting to one side of the tree.

"He's smaller than Ryme," Toby said under her breath to Thane. The dark-haired dragon nodded once.

"Ryme was a Frost Giant. This one's just a regular run of the mill wandering Giant. Probably just woke up and doesn't even realize that things are vastly different from what they used to be," Thane replied, moving in a big arc around the Giant meant to avoid scaring the Giant, as much as Toby could tell.

"Any ideas as to how to get the shiny rock from him?" Craning her head, Toby could see an odd shifting light cast on one side of the sack. The tail must be in with the rest of his collection. It seemed so close and yet far too far away to simply grab and dash off with. Especially considering how close it was to the Giant's foot. Ryme had been stupid, but certainly not slow.

"Ask nicely?" Thane suggested. It was Toby's turn to shoot him a look. Any sharp-tongued response she might have come up with was lost when the Giant shifted abruptly, turning and leaning over to peer at them.

"Who's YOU?"

"Friends," Edolie called, clapping her hands for added effect.

"New friends for you as well," offered Edlyn. The Giant sat back into his crouch again, thick, three-fingered hands on his tree trunk-thick legs, considering. The action made his furrowed brow deepen even more until Toby wondered how any light reached his tiny, squinting eyes.

"Rumb like friends..." he said slowly, ponderifically.

"We're _very_ nice friends," Toby volunteered, slowly stepping to the side and moving until she was standing closer to Edolie and Edlyn. This close to a Giant she wanted her back-up as close as possible. There was no telling what might set him off into a child-like temper tantrum and it was far too early for Toby to worry about fighting a Giant. She was pretty sure it was a personal rule: no fighting Giants before breakfast, or something.

"See? They're both very nice. We think you'll love having so many wonderful new friends, right?" The twin closest to Toby beamed angelically up at the thick-browed face above her and Toby felt a wash of surprise at the twin's acting ability.

"Okay," was Rumb's simple, happy response.

Toby seized the opportunity. "Great! You know what we could do, to show just how good of friends we all are now? We could trade gifts!"

"Gifts?" The Giant perked up. "Rumb like gifts!"

The Giant's response encouraged Toby enough to step forward, fishing in her pockets. There wasn't much, but her fingers found the smooth plastic wrapper of a snack she'd never gotten around to eating. Pulling out the chocolate cupcakes, she held it out for Rumb to see. "Look, I've got something _really_ yummy here. It's a chocolate cupcake - they're really special and hard to get." Rumb perked up with interest, eyeing the small treat in Toby's hands curiously, so the brunette plunged ahead. "I'm your friend, so I'd be willing to trade with you for it... for maybe a shiny rock. Do you have any shiny rocks?"

Rumb looked at his bag, then back at Toby. "Yes..." he answered slowly, uncertainly.

"Great! You like having friends, right? So you should trade me your shiny rock for the cupcakes and prove just how good of a friend you are." Toby could hear her voice getting tinny with nervousness, her palms slick with sweat. She was all too aware of just how thinly her luck was spread in this venture, a thought that was almost immediately followed by gratitude for the reassuring presence of Thane at her back.

"That's such a great idea, Toby," Edolie gushed.

"Oh yes. Only a good friend would trade cupcakes for a shiny rock. I wish I had a rock I could trade for those cupcakes..." Edlyn even deflated slightly in sadness, causing her twin to reach out and comfort her with a light pat to the shoulder.

The Giant looked between them and Toby, considering. Finally he reached into his bag, rummaging around until he withdrew a fist-sized chunk of rock that was slowly shifting with every rainbow color imaginable. Toby's heart raced with the promise of victory and she stepped forward again, cupcakes clutched high and visible in her fist.

She extended her other hand. "That's perfect! Just give it to me, and I'll give you these _really_ yummy cupcakes, okay?"

Rumb moved as if to do just that and Toby took another eager step forward. Almost immediately she realized her mistake as a frown crossed the giant's face and he snatched his hands back. "Wait..." he began, anger coloring his voice. "You trading bad with Rumb. You give Rumb something small and something that go away quick for the prettiest, shineist rock Rumb ever find. Rumb no think this is good deal for him."

"No, no, you're getting a great deal," Toby pushed, feeling her stomach falling inside of her. They'd been _so_ close, so very close...!

"No!" Rumb bellowed, a noise that set birds in every nearby tree alight in response. Toby swallowed - hard. "NO give rock! Keep rock! No make Rumb's head spin with big words! NOT good friends, no no NO!"

"We're sorry," Thane stepped next to Toby's side, his hand on her shoulder. She began to protest, but his grip on her was suddenly painful enough to make her immediately shut her mouth once more. "We didn't mean to make Rumb mad. Don't worry, you won't get a bad trade, okay?"

Rumb seemed appeased, even if only temporarily, but before Toby could judge any further, Thane was pulling her backwards. She resisted for a moment before finally turning to him. With a flick of his fingers, he summoned Devon and the twins over as well.

"We need a different tactic. The last thing we need is to try and fight an angry giant for it. Giants are stupid, but they're no pushovers when it comes to getting them mad." The ebon-eyed dragon looked between the four of them seriously, his voice low enough that there was no chance that Rumb would overhear them and subsequently over-react.

Toby shoved the cupcakes back in her pocket. "Do we have anything else to trade for it?"

"Given enough time and energy, one of us could shift something suitable... However, it would take far longer than the Giant's patience would last," Edolie replied in her sweet, even-toned voice. Turning her green and gold eyes to her twin, Edlyn nodded in agreement. 

"A different course of action is advisable."

"Like what? Wait for him to fall asleep again and nab it? We have no idea where he'll head next nor when he'll decide to slow down enough to nap," Devon hissed, folding her arms over her chest as she glared daggers at the Giant.

"Come on. He's an oversized child with a pea-sized brain. There has to be _some_ way we can outsmart him," Toby replied, shaking her head. "I mean, we're the ones that the entire world is counting on. If we can't outsmart a Giant, there's something seriously wrong with us."

"I don't know, sometimes the simplest logic is the most difficult to argue with," the black-haired young man observed, regarding Toby with a faintly arched eyebrow. The twins nodded in agreement and Toby was suddenly annoyed with all of them.

"Come on, seriously? Let's just think of a way to convince him that... I don't know, that real friends give each other shiny rocks or something. Isn't there a way that you could breathe fire on a rock and make it all sparkly?"

"Again - it would require an amount of time greater than the Giant's probable limits of patience," Edolie stated, shrugging one shoulder.

"Well then we'll have Devon teleport back to Avalon and get-"

"Oh that is _it._" The red-haired dragon surged to her feet, her eyes blazing with fury. "Stand here and argue. I've got this."

Before they could stop her, she strode across the grass and towards the Giant, who was still crouched in the middle of the clearing. Thane groaned and buried his hands in his face. The twins simply looked amused. Toby gripped Thane's arm. "What is she doing? Thane. Thane, what is she doing she's going to make him _mad_...!"

"Hey! You!"

Devon stopped in front of the Giant, hands on her hips, head tossed imperiously back in order to stare at the Giant down her shapely nose. Rumb looked over his shoulder before realizing that she meant him, then pointed at himself. "Rumb?" he questioned, as if to make sense.

"Yeah. Rumb. C'mere, Rumb, I've got something to tell you." Devon raised one hand, gesturing for the Giant to come closer. Rumb hesitated, but then leaned down slightly towards her. "Closer. It's a secret, so I've got to whisper it."

Rumb's face lit up in craggy delight. "Rumb like secrets!"

"Great, wonderful. Get down here so I can tell you it."

Still grinning oafishly, the Giant shifted onto his knees (it being the only real way he could lean that far down) and lowered his head towards Devon, an expectant ear tilted her way. The dragon watched for a moment, then nodded. "That's good," she told him.

In one smooth motion, she pulled her fist back, then slammed it directly between Rumb's eyes.

The Giant went cross-eyed, and with a muffled _WHUMPF!_, hit the ground face first, his rear end sticking up in the air.

Devon prodded him with the toe of one boot. When she was satisfied he was out cold, she moved around him, grabbed the shifting colored rock from where it'd fallen in the grass, then stood up, holding it aloft.

"Problem solved!" she chimed cheerily into the silence that followed the Giant's descent to the ground.

Toby could only stare at her. "You just... you.. just..."

Thane moved past the brunette, clapping Devon on the shoulder. "That's one way of dealing with it, I suppose."

"Very efficient," Edolie critiqued as she strode past, followed by Edlyn who remarked, "yes, very effective."

Toby stared some more.

Devon dropped the rock into one of the twins' palms to be shaped into a charm, grinning at Toby. "Coming?" she asked cheekily, then began to shift.

_We need to know where we're going, if you're not too busy gawking._

Toby flushed embarassedly and hurried to join the rest of them in the middle of the clearing. Fishing out her compass, she couldn't help but cast one more open-mouthed look at the Giant who was now out quite cold in the middle of the clearing.

"Devon?" she said. The ruby dragon inclined her head at Toby in response. "... remind me never to bargain with you. I'm afraid it'd be hazardous for my health."

The crimson-scaled dragon's eyes swirled with delight, her great maw opening in a single breath, half-laugh, half-flame. As the licking tongues curled around Toby and the others, the brunette cast one more look at the crumpled lump of Rumb.

"Sorry," she yelled, and then they were gone.


	5. Chapter 4

**4.**

As the flickering ruby flames engulfed them, all Toby could think about was that poor Giant, waking up with his precious stone gone. The world was at risk, yes, but the brunette hardly thought that it merited stealing, even from one of Believe's most harmless denizens. As the ring of fire began to evaporate, she steeled herself, resolving to put both feet firmly down when it came to underhanded methods like that in the future.

"Devon, don't you da—wah?" Her anger died on her lips as the scene around them sank in. At first thought, she thought they were in some underwater cavern. A second later she realized what she'd taken to be stalactites and stalagmites were in fact vines, and the wall was concrete criss-crossed with more of the spider-web vines. The floor underneath her had at first seemed to be sand but upon closer inspection revealed itself to be uneven because of the vines that had wound under and through the neat inch-squared white tiles.

Dominating the center of what she'd thought to be the cavern was a luminous blue lake of water, square and tapering from shallow to deeper. The vines twisted along the water's edge then dipped beneath its surface, running along the roughly rectangular length to twist into what seemed to be a tear or a rift in the deepest part of the lake. Through the tapered hole, Toby could see a pale blue shimmer, like light off of a shifting surface. It was as if, looking down through the hole, they were actually looking up from the base of another pond, mirrored to the one that they were staring down through.

"Where _are_ we?" Devon's voice echoed through the corners of the cavern as she stepped forward, a sweep of red hair turned indigo from the light of the water accompanying her query.

"It's like we're deep underground," Thane replied. "But I've never seen a cavern like this before. And that… that looks distinctly not-mundane." He pointed to the tear-portal at the bottom of the lake.

"It reeks of Bright Magic in here," Edlyn observed, daintily picking her way across the vines towards an opening that Toby hadn't noticed before. It was roughly a foot taller than the green-haired dragon and slightly wider than it was tall. The whole thing was making Toby's head hurt, like there was something she was missing, something _obvious_.

Why did it seem so familiar in here?

"Regardless, we'd best seek the next tail. Time is short," Edolie pointed out, reaching out to poke at a vine that descended from ceiling to floor, several shorter vines sprayed out from the middle, which had a thick brown seam across the middle of the thick plant.

_It's been cut there,_ Toby realized, subconsciously hugging the leather satchel she wore to her front.

"Yeah, but where would one find a magical fox's tail in a vine-filled cave like this?" Devon was saying, striding along the edge of the lake of water as she peered around searchingly. Turning abruptly, she faced Toby and said something, something about the compass and getting it out. But Toby's head was pounding, and a second later her fingers brushed the pages of the Tome in her arms and the world jerked around her, plunging her back through time.

"_It's not what you think. It's ... It's real. She was a Selkie, a seal-fairy, she was just going home..." _

_"A __Seal-fairy__? This is ridiculous. Give me that stupid thing right now...!" Julie reaching for her tiara, Toby stumbling backwards._

_Fizzybink appearing in mid-yell - "NO!" _

She came back to herself in a sudden rush, finding herself on her knees in front of the pool, gasping for breath. Because she knew in a rush it _was_ a pool – an Olympic regulation sized pool, to be exact. She knew exactly why this place seemed so familiar, why she'd seen a piece of her very own Story when she'd touched the Tome.

"This is my old highschool!" she gasped. "These vines, they're from my defensive magic. It kicked in after Julie saw the Selkie and tried to take my tiara. This entire building is encased in vines!"

"It would explain the strong presence of Bright Magic," Edolie remarked, looking over to Edlyn, who was nodding in agreement.

"Yes, but that _still_ doesn't explain where or why there'd be a tail here. If this only happened a couple of months ago it's very unlikely that one of Demora's tails would have found their way into this very building," Thane replied, a furrow in his handsome brow. He turned his troubled expression to Toby, offering one hand to help her back to her feet. She accepted the aid, careful not to brush the edges of the Tome again. She didn't need to relieve that terrible day; after realizing that not even her own highschool in her nice, quiet town was enough to keep her from the world of Believe, she'd had to leave for Avalon. Nothing had gone right for her since that moment – the Trolls had captured her on her way, the Fairy Queen herself had turned out to be Toby's biggest enemy, and now she was far away from the boy she loved on a ridiculous quest that was probably all in vain.

"Toby?"

She blinked up at Thane, the logical part of her brain noting that he'd been talking to her as she was off in her own little la-la land. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Compass?"

"Oh. Compass. Right." She pulled out the small rose-wood box, flicking it open. The needle pointed quite steadily towards the far wall. "It's this way," she said, doing mental calculations. The cafeteria was in that direction – perhaps Demora's tail had been hidden in plain sight this entire time…? It all seemed so ridiculous.

The needle slowly drifted backwards and Toby stopped. "Hold on…" She backed up, retracing her steps and the needle hovered back to the very direction it'd been originally pointing in. "What's going on?"

Thane peered over her shoulder, then followed the direction of the needle. "… I don't think the tail is here," he said in a slow voice. "I think it's there."

He pointed at the rip at the bottom of the pool and the barely-visible water beyond.

"Yes, but where, exactly, is 'there'?" Toby asked, peering up at the ebon-haired dragon. He returned her look with a wane smile.

"I don't know."

"I'll find out," Devon said. Stepping forward, she flung her hands over her head and dove gracefully into the pool.

Toby heaved a sigh. "Someday she'll actually stop to _explain_ herself before she just throws herself headlong into things…"

Thane laughed. "Don't hold your breath."

The three dragons and the Storyteller stepped to the edge of the pool, watching Devon as she stroked across the water effortlessly, then dipped under the surface once more. Her crimson hair billowed out behind her as she placed her hands on the vines framing the opening, looking back and forth before kicking forward to push herself through.

As soon as her head passed the threshold, lightning erupted from the opening, arching across in a brilliant barrier, then throwing Devon backwards with a blinding blast. Lightning-laced waves pounced towards them and Thane grabbed Toby, throwing her onto the ground underneath him. She could see the green hair of Edlyn and Edolie crouched next to them, hands over their heads.

It was over as quickly as it had happened, an eerie keening filling what should have been silence after the roar of the explosion. A fine spray of water hung in the air, drifting slowly back towards the now-soaked ground and half-emptied pool. Small jets of light sparked from one vine to another, crackling underneath the water's surface.

"Devon!" Toby yelled, shoving at Thane to get him to let her up. He only reluctantly did so once it was obvious that there was nothing more to come, other than the high-pitched noise. Toby scrabbled to her feet and dashed across to where Devon lay, a smoking, smoldering heap near the far wall. "What happened?"

The twins had picked themselves up, peering over the edge of the pool towards the sliver of an entrance that was still crackling with leftover electricity.

Toby reached Devon, rolling her over. The crimson dragon groaned and the brunette breathed a sigh of relief. The lightning had burned most of her face and hands, but wherever there should have been scorching and bleeding, the dragon's skin had peeled away to reveal glinting ruby scales underneath. The worst of the scales were blackened with the damage, but even as Toby watched, Devon shook herself awake, her luminous red eyes swirling with anger and pain.

"… damn," she groaned. "Haven't felt one of those in nearly a thousand years."

"One of what? Will someone tell me what's going on?" Toby looked between Devon and Thane, who'd knelt on the other side of Devon, then over her shoulder at the emerald-haired twins. The twins were rather intently staring at something and Toby followed their gaze.

Through the opening darted several sleek shapes, dark grey as the sea during a storm and as fleet as the fastest of zephyrs. They twirled and twisted through the water towards the dragons and their charge, finally coming to a halt in perfect formation. There were seven Selkies – for once they stilled there was no doubt in Toby's mind that they were certainly the seal-fairies – arranged in a V-shape with the sole Selkie closest to the edge of the pool.

The lead Selkie let out a sharp bark, the other Selkies sinking underneath the surface of the water. There they stayed, moving gently in the water even as the first Selkie flicked its head backwards.

Like water washing the previous seal form away, the Selkie's fins elongated, twisting and refining until they were hands and legs. With a shake of her head, she cleared strands of her grey-black hair from her eyes, gesturing with both of her hands. The water swelled around her, lifting her up until her bare feet, decorated with a small shell bracelet around her right ankle, touched on the edge of the pool. Long, wet hair swept out behind her, her deep-sea eyes sweeping and finding Toby. Perched on the top of her head was a hood in the stylization of a seal head, similar to many of the tribal designs that Toby had seen linked to totem poles and Inuit carvings. Thick, glossy fur like a seal's skin draped from the hood around to the front, forming a simple, elegant dress that reached to about the middle of her thighs.

The woman – Selkie woman – smiled at Toby. "It's been a while, Tobias."

It took her a moment, then the woman's identity hit the brunette like a giant's club between the eyes. She gasped. "Abbie?"

The Selkie's aqua-blue eyes twinkled merrily. "It is good to see you as well." She bowed to Toby, then turned her attention to the dragons. Devon had already pushed herself to a sitting position and at the Selkie's scrutiny, shoved her way to her feet, her shoulders set. Toby could hear a soft chittering come from the Selkies in the pool and Thane squared his stance as well. The entire room hummed with tension, a tension that Toby didn't understand nor could she place.

"Okay. Someone mind telling me what's going on before you all get at each other's throats?" she said, loudly, into the silence that stretched out in the empty space between the two groups. "What was that lightning? Why did it hurt Devon?"

"That, Storyteller, was a Draconic Barrier," Abbie replied, once more turning her attention to the brunette. "It keeps _their kind_ out."

"'Their kind'? You mean dragons?" Toby turned to look at Thane, then back at Abbie. "I don't understand. Thane and the others are helping me, there's no reason to keep them out." Her words caused another stir of activity from the water behind Abbie, to the point where the dark-haired woman looked over her shoulder in order to still the commotion. Devon growled, low, in her throat, only held back by the quelling hand Thane had placed on her upper arm.

"Every major city or settlement in Believe has them, Storyteller. Only Avalon has had its Barriers lowered… at the behest of the Knight Georgette, I do believe. For the rest of us, we see no reason to relinquish the safety afforded to us by keeping their kind out of our cities."

"They're a leftover artifact of an ancient time," Thane stated in his low, even voice. "Surely our actions since that time have merited—"

"Nothing your people have done or will ever do could possibly ever mend the trust that was betrayed," Abbie snapped, her hands closing into fists at her side. Her bright eyes darkened, and for a moment she seemed like the sea, drawing her breath in order to rage. A second later, her gaze flicked to Toby and she calmed, at least a little. "Tell her, Alricson. Tell her about the hundred days and nights that your kind rained fire and hatred down upon all the innocents in both our worlds. Tell her how your people flew into a bloodrage that none could quell, how your Flights descended upon every city and town, burning and destroying everything in sight."

Her voice had grown soft, dangerous, and… hateful. "Tell her how the dragons burned their hatred into the very earth, leaving vast patches that won't sustain the tiniest of lives. Tell her about the Great Betrayal of the Dragons."

Toby was taken aback by the level of fury in the Selkie's voice, her own anger somewhat abated now that they were actually disclosing knowledge that was common enough to them but precious scarce for herself. Stepping back, she turned to look fully at Thane. The obsidian dragon stood at Devon's side, still, but now his shoulders were slumped, a look of deep regret and shame on his face full enough to make Toby's heart ache for him. Next to him, Devon bore a similar look, though hers was tinged with a healthy dose of anger.

"It's true," he said in a quiet voice.

"No… there's got to be some misunderstanding. I know you, I know Theo. There's no way any of you would do anything like that," Toby answered, shaking her head as she wrapped her arms around herself.

"I wish I believed that as well. Unfortunately, what she says is the truth." Thane inhaled sharply, then turned to look squarely at Toby. "Several thousand years ago, when humans were young and new and there was a far closer relationship between the normal world and that of Believe, a terrible thing happened… The Dragonqueen's egg was stolen. She had been unable to conceive for a very long time, so when she finally produced a viable egg and they could feel the thrum of her son's life inside, all of the Flights rejoiced.

"Then the terrible happened. The egg was stolen. The scent of the humans who had done it was all over the caverns. At that time the dragons welcomed the humans and even taught them – they showed them how to handle fire, how to produce and extinguish it, how to use it to make their metals stronger. Some of those humans used that trust that the dragons gave them in the hopes that they would be able to control the hatchling dragon and bend him to their power." He shook his head slowly, sadly. "They couldn't have imagined what it did to the dragons. That sort of betrayal… all the Dragonqueen's fear and anger and rage… It just channeled right through all of the dragons. It turned them into raging infernos of fury."

He inhaled slowly, placing a reassuring hand on Devon's shoulder. The red dragon didn't look up, just kept staring down at the floor, her lips twisted in a scowl. "By the time the dragons burned their way through the surrounding countryside, it attracted the attention of several denizens of the land of Believe. They tried to stop the dragons… and the fighting that ensued spurned a civil war that nearly tore all of Believe apart. By the time the dragons caught up to the humans, returning the egg to the Dragonqueen and quelling her rage, the damage was done."

He sighed softly. "Dragons are now forever hated by most of Believe."

"As is our right, after the destruction wrought by your people on our land and lives," Abbie remarked, her voice tight. The knell of it seemed to break the quiet that had fallen in the cavernous room, because she stepped forward, pointing one finger at Thane's face.

"Why do you seek to enter our city, dragon? You of all the dragons should know well that your type is not allowed, nor will they ever be. If you seek to enter by force, we _will_ stop you."

Devon's quiet snapped and she leaned forward, flame licking from her breath as she snorted. "I'd like to see you all _try_—"

The angry splash of water cut her off as several of the Selkie warriors leaped from the water, suddenly human and bearing spears and tridents. Edolie and Edlyn skipped back from the pool to draw even with Thane and Devon, their hands out in front of them, ready to intercept any projectiles sent their way.

For a single, horrible second, Toby thought it was too late, that they were all going to simply listen to their past hatred and give reason for even more to be carried. Before she'd fully realized what she was doing or even thought about it for more than a half second of impulse, she dashed between the two groups, holding her arms in a vain attempt to block more than a tiny sliver of the space between them.

"Stop it! We weren't trying to break in! We didn't even know where that went, we're just trying to find a magical tail to help us save the world!"

The Selkies hesitated, looking to Abbie, and it was all the dragons needed to bring them down from ready to lunge, especially given the fact that their charge was now in the smack dab middle of things.

"You mean.. you weren't trying to break into Bluurble?" Abbie prompted, in a slow, careful voice.

Toby pressed one hand to her heart. "I swear to you, Abbie, on the Tome. On my position as Storyteller. We were directed here by my magical compass. We had no idea that this led anywhere at all, nevermind the city of Bubbles."

"Bluurble," one of the Selkie warriors corrected.

"Blubber?"

"No. Bluurble. Just… oh, nevermind. Call it Atlantis," Abbie sighed.

"Oh, oka—wait, _Atlantis?_" Toby stared at the Selkie, then back at Thane.

Abbie smiled. "Atlantis. If what you seek is within our walls, Storyteller, we will give you everything you need to aid you in your quest. The residents of Atlantis will do all we can for you. You are most welcome."

With that, she dipped in a low, sweeping bow, then held one hand out for Toby. "Please, allow us to escort you to our halls."

"Well, first you have to take down your draco-barrier thingy."

The tension that had melted away after Toby's interference sprang back, full force. The brunette could see Thane gather himself behind her, Devon leaning forward once more. For her part, the Selkie had paused, mid-bow, and only slowly began to straighten. When she spoke once more, it was with obvious care. She was choosing her words carefully, most certainly for Toby's benefit if no one else's.

"I'm afraid that's not possible, Storyteller. The Barrier was put in place by the great and powerful mages of old. There is little we can do to put even a dent in it, much less a portal to allow admission. Even if we could, I'm afraid they would not be welcomed."

"But they're _helping_ me. I'm the Storyteller, shouldn't that get them a free pass?" Toby pressed, terrified at the prospect of having to find and collect a tail all on her own. Even if Atlantis was one of the cities of Believe, it didn't mean it was safe.

She'd thought Avalon, the city of the Fairies, was safe, and she'd ended up dying in its halls.

"I'm sorry. There is nothing we can do. If you wish to resume your quest it will have to be without your escorts. Either you come alone, or the world as we know it is destroyed."


	6. Chapter 5

**(( Been trying to get this written for about a week now, sorry. Had it all done and then my laptop restarted, and the second time around it just wouldn't come out right. Ah well. Enjoy yet another crazy city in Believe :D ))**

**5.**

"There's nothing to it. Toby, you must go," Thane said in a low voice behind her. Toby shook her head, as if such a simple motion would deny the inevitable and change everything. It didn't. Abbie just nodded once in agreement, her eyes never leaving Toby's face.

"There has to be another way…"

"Look." Devon folded her arms over her chest, . "It's not like we're going anywhere. We'll be waiting when you find it and are ready to get the next one."

"The more time we waste seeking to circumvent this truth, the less time we have to ensure the safety of all," Edlyn pointed out, Edolie nodding in agreement with her twin's words. Toby glanced at them both, biting her lower lip, then turned back to Abbie. In all the months since this whole mess had begun, she'd never been on her own. Even in the depths of Everdark, the Troll's home city, she'd not been alone for long. And she'd certainly not been tasked with saving the world while doing so.

Quite honestly, the prospect of not having the four dragons backing her in whatever she found terrified her. The Selkies hadn't exactly been the picture of welcome or hospitality.

"Tobias," Thane's voice came from her side, the warm weight of his hand cupping her shoulder. She turned to look at him slowly, knowing the tone she heard in his voice. He was going to say something reasonable, something logical... something that she wouldn't be able to argue with and she was going to have to go. Staring at him, she mentally cursed having such reasonable travelling companions.

"You have the medallion, yes?"

She raised one hand, pulling free the golden amulet that the Elf Queen, Gem, had given her on behalf of the ruling Council of Believe. The light glimmered off of its twisted gold filigree, stoking a fire in the smooth red stone set in the very middle. It was a Verastone, a magical pebble that warmed whenever she was being lied to. Yet another reason she wore it close to her skin.

The stone and twisted gold flung sparkles along the collection of faces, vines, and water, and stunned the Selkies into full silence. Abbie's eyes swung from the necklace to Toby's face with obvious awe.

_Great. As if the giant musty book doesn't make me enough of a freakshow_.

"As long as you keep that necklace on, no denizen of Believe would dare harm you. Not unless they were brave enough to face the wrath of the entirety of the Council... and trust me, I daresay that is a fate far scarier than any Hidebehind." Thane offered her a small smile. "No matter our disagreements on history, I am confident the Selkies will protect you."

In front of them, Abbie straightened, pressing her fist to her chest solemnly. "I swear in front of Mami Wata, on Mother Sea herself, that I will let no harm befall Tobias while I have any breath left in my body."

Thane nodded in satisfaction but Toby still thought of a dozen reasons she shouldn't go. Theo's face flashed in her mind and she knew no number of reasons would be good enough for her to continue to drag her feet. Finally, feeling strangely terrified by the prospect, she nodded once.

Thane turned to Abbie. "When she has the tail, simply send word to Avalon. Theodore will be able to contact the twins to find our location."

"What will you do?" Toby asked quietly.

Edolie spoke from behind her: "We will speak to the Scryer. Perhaps she will be able to discern the whereabouts of the next tail and expedite our process."

Thane nodded in agreement, then gave Tobias's shoulder one last squeeze. "Get going."

Toby took one last look at each of her companions, a very large part of her wishing they would change their minds, not allow her to go without them. They didn't and Toby stepped forward towards the Selkies. Abbie gestured for her to approach the pool even as the warriors that had sprung to the side of the pool dove backwards, swiftly seals even before the ripples had begun to still.

"Tobias," Abbie said. "We have to swim to the inner ring of Bluurble. It's not a long swim, not with a dozen of the fastest Selkie warriors as your escort."

"I can't breathe underwater," Toby replied nervously, eyeing the deep blue pool of water. Several of the Selkies chattered in amusement; the brunette could hear a low serpentine hiss from behind her. Devon, most likely. Abbie shot a quelling gaze at the seals waiting patiently with only their eyes and the tips of their nose above water.

"We'll take care of that. Fasten your satchel so the Tome doesn't get wet."

Toby was careful not to touch the pages of the Tome, but despite the care she took, she couldn't help the pounding behind her eyes. An echo of a voice rushed through her head as she looked at the storm-eyed woman in front of her - _ve it back. You have no right to keep me here! I _trusted_ y-_ and then she blinked it away.

"Right. Ready," she said, more to steady herself than out of any need to let Abbie know to continue.

Abbie's eyes lit up, her hand on Toby's arm. "Then, Storyteller, to Bluurble we go! Jump!"

Half-propelled, half-dragged, Toby leaped into the pool, bracing herself against the shock of the ocean-cold water. It took her breath away, but before she had even a second to panic, there was a doe-eyed face in front of her and an explosion of bubbles. Instead of simply disappating in her face, however, the bubbles clung to her nose and mouth, giving her precious air.

Abbie, a dark, sleek torpedo of grace and speed, took hold of Toby's sleeve in her mouth. Another Selkie copied the gesture with Toby's other sleeve, and suddenly the water was rushing past them in a blur, the vine-trimmed rift looming large in front of them.

Toby had a moment of panicked _we're not going to fit through_ and then they were through, and the incredible vastness of the ocean opened up around them. It was an infinite stretch of blue, fading to inky black beneath them. They were already deep enough that she couldn't discern the surface, so very and incomprehensibly far above them. Toby twisted to look behind her, treated to the odd sight of several roots simply appearing in the middle of the water, dangling back and forth in the carress of the currents. With the rest of the water framing them, she could barely make out the portal that led to her old highschool.

Then they were moving, the Selkies propelling her forward at a breath-taking rate. Every time she began to fight to keep breathing, a seal fairy twisted around her, exhaling and replenishing the bubble-mask that clung to her lips and nose.

They rushed forward, a train of twisting and dodging shadows coursing through the water, spinning and arcing in impossible paths, Tobias drug in between them, a reluctant burden. The Selkies seemed impervious to it, but Toby could feel the cold creep of the depths, the press of it against her body, and the rational part of her brain questioned whether or not she was in danger of getting diver's sickness or whatever that was called.

Ahead of them, the velvet black deepened, but Toby could just begin to make out a high stone ridge that rose from the sea bed, a gently waving curtain of broad-leaved kelp beyond it. The kelp seemed so thick, so impenetrable, that she looked to her Selkie escorts in worry, but they simply torpedoed forward.

At the last possible second, just as Toby was sure they were all going to smack head-first into a wall of wet, thick kelp, the Selkies twisted her to one side and they deftly slipped through the leaves. A tangled blur of green and deep emerald with glimpses of the steely grey of the seal fairies streaked across Toby's vision. Abruptly, they were through, the kelp fading away and a brilliant light dancing through the now-bright water.

Despite the inaudible press of water against her face, she gasped. There, laid out with the broad kelp leaves reaching up overhead like a protective cocoon, was a sparkling city. It seemed to have grown from a reef itself, the buildings on the sea bed growing in a variety of reds and blues, twisting in elegant spires and arcing in smooth circles. Above their peaks, vines of thick sea weed drifted, tangled in what at first seemed to Toby to be messy knots. As they rushed closer, however, she realized that they were actually holding together large slabs of reef or seashells, forming what almost seemed like pavilions hovering above the ground, walled with brightly colored stretches of rough canvas.

Throughout it all, strings of lights drifted vertically from the ground on thin tendrils, curled around the edges of the largest buildings, and sparkled from inside lattice-like reef balls. Beings of every discernable aquatic shape and size flitted through the rainbow of buildings and seaweed-vines, a dizzying kaleidoscope of movement and flashes of insight whispering into her mind from the Tome. A massive eel with prismatic scales wound his way underneath them - _Abaia_ sprang to her mind - flitting near his giant saucer-dish eye, a slim being roughly resembling a human in his torso but quickly fading to a long, ribboning eel tail kept pace, obviously talking to the large eel - _Nixie_, she thought, though it was accompanied by a confusing jumble of _nix nyxling nixie melusine_ as if there was more to it than that but she simply couldn't understand it.

A pair of beings - one red-oranged skinned, the other purple with thick flat hair like magenta leaves and glowing blue eyes - flickered past, woven baskets filled with clams and seaweed in their arms, their tapering, double-finned tails propelling them through the gently waving chaos of floating kelp-houses and stone buildings. _Merrows_, Toby realized, and thought to herself that they were far more beautiful than the half-fish, half-man mermaids she'd seen in books as a child.

_We've passed through the Outer Ring. Just a few more minutes and we'll be at the Inner Ring._ Abbie's voice broke in her head like white-tipped waves running across the shore of Toby's consciousness, the whisper of a storm's gale whistling through. _There you will meet Dagon and Mami Wata and they will decide the best way to help you._

Toby half-started to reach towards her compass, but then thought better of it. Deciding to try it at least, she said, as loudly as she could without straight-out yelling, "I have a compass." She patted the satchel that the Tome resided in, hoping that Abbie would understand the gist of what she was trying to say. The Selkie's big black eye blinked at her slowly, as if thinking about waht she'd said, then the seal fairy nodded once in understanding.

_They still wish to meet you._

Toby turned forward again, the kelp-tent dwellings bobbing around them like bubbles held mid-ascent. It seemed warmer here, for which Toby was grateful, but the idea of having to deal with yet another set of ruling monarchs made her hands icy with nervousness. They all seemed to be the same - all of them were using her for one end-goal or another. Her well-being seemed far down on all of their priorities... she wondered if that came as part of the Storyteller job description or if it was just a perk of the situation she found herself in.

A sleek green shape suddenly reared up in front of them and the Selkies twisted to a stop. Baseball-sized glowing white eyes focused on them, a long tongue flicking out to taste the water. The very dragon-esque creature turned its tapered snout towards the assembled party, fin-like flaps along its head and neck flaring, orange and red springing to their leathery folds like a chameleon changing its skin.

_Mami Wata awaits the Storyteller in the Central Court, _the knucker informed them, its voice a fierce tidal wave crashing through Toby's mind and making her wince with the sheer force of it. Abbie chittered a response that appeased the giant water-dragon, because he pulled his head back from their path. His long serpentine body was wound around a piece of worn reef, his massive clawed feet resting on its rounded tip - relaxed, though easily close enough to snatch out and grab them. He seemed to be a guard of sorts, because it was only after he had lifted his head from in front of them that the Selkies pulled her forward again.

The next few minutes were a rush of buildings and creatures, knowledge from the Tome bubbling up inside of her mind fast enough that it was a confusing jumble and nothing terribly coherent. She caught a glimpse of a giant catfish easily as big as a football field, small flickering merrows darting around it as they scrubbed at its pearly scales.

Then the Selkies veered sharply down towards the sea bed, twisted through an archway, and Toby's head broke through water into air. She gasped and floundered in surprise, wiping at her face to clear her hair out of her eyes as she tried to figure out where she was. One of the Selkies, in his human form, gently guided her with a hand on the small of her back forward and her feet found smooth steps in the water underneath her toes. She got her footing, taking in the reef that seemed to have grown overhead like a roof. A long hallway stretched out in front of her, the walls made of a clear crystalline substance, patterns from the brightly lit water dancing on the floor and walls.

"Is this the... the Inner Ring?" Toby asked, climbing up the steps and out of the water. The air was cold and damp and she shivered in her soaking wet clothes.

Abbie, looking perfectly comfortable in her seal-pelt clothes, stepped up next to her. "Yes. But not just any part of the Inner Ring. This is Mami Wata's Court. Be warned, Mami Wata is like Mother Sea - unfathomable and irrepressible in her moods. Her judgement is everything in Bluurble. Even Dagon and his Tritons do not dare second-guess her."

Toby swallowed hard and nodded once.

The Selkie woman smiled. "Shall we?"

Toby ignored the desire to answer _let's not, thanks_ and instead shrugged the satchel that held the Tome a little higher on her back. The Selkies began walking and she followed, ignoring how loud her shoed feet were compared to the whisper of the Selkies' bare soles on the stone of the floor beneath them.

The hallway wasn't long and soon it opened up into a room that was quite clearly a throne room, from the high backed, elegant chair at one end to the breath-takingly high arched cieling, more of the clear stone cut into diamonds and set into the reef. Strangely enough, on the throne was a glowing orb like a solidifed bubble, casting a kaleidoscope of colored-light fragments from its depths. Several steps away from the throne was a simple roughly worked bench in front of a table filled with seashells and other odds and ends.

Sitting on the bench, hunkered over a piece of parchement with strange markings across its surface, was a short, ebony-skinned woman with a pale white snake curled around her waist, its red eyes fixed on Toby.

The woman raised flinty-black eyes to them, then stood swiftly, her blue-green skirts swirling around her and tinkling from the small shells tied to the hems. She wore white coral bangles around her wrists and ankles, and pale pink ones interspered with gold ones around her neck. Her hair was thick and tightly curled, held back from her face by a matching gold head band. She was all full curves and smooth elegance, with all the grace and power of a rushing wave.

"So. You're the Storyteller I be hearing so much about," she said, her accent thick and African and strong.

Hands still clutching her satchel's straps, Toby bowed deeply to the woman. "My name's Toby. I need your help, Mami Wata, to save the world."


	7. Chapter 6

**(( AN: Here's a nice long one - twice as long as the last chapter. Trying to make an effort at making things a bit more fleshed out... I think all I did was cram more stuff in the same chapter, haha! **

**Also, if you're a fan following this story, leave me a comment on the next couple of chapters so I can get a sense of who's invested. I've been investigating my options on the publishing front so there's a very real chance that I might take all three books down off of Fanfiction in the very near future. If I do that, I don't want to punish those of you who've been following book 3 so I'd likely figure out a way to send chapters privately or something like that. **

**Just something I'm mulling on. :) )) **

**6.**

"Pretty bold of you, to be strollin' right in and demandin' help wit'out even tellin' what be happenin'," Mami Wata observed drily, drawing her long fingers along the pale white snake's head, her dark eyes never straying from Toby's face. The brunette found herself shifting under the weight of the woman's scrutiny.

"I'm sorry," she blurted out. "But I don't have any other choice. We have to find these tails, you see, from this Kitsune named Demora so that she can figure out how to stop these big rifts from opening and tearing apart your world _and_ mine and-"

Mami Wata held up one hand, stilling Toby's tirade midsentance. "I know," she said, tiredly.

Toby gawked at her; behind her she could hear Abbie's gasp. "You do?"

"Not the specifics, but I was aware both of the Rifts and the army they be gatherin'."

"Wait - what? Army? Whose army?"

Mami Wata tilted her head, her fingers stilling on top of the snake's head. The tip of its tail twitched agitatedly, coiling back and turning its red eyes back to Toby. "The Army that is currently occupying Ys - the one that be bearin' white roses on their shields."

Toby's heart forgot it was supposed to be beating, instead plunging to the depths of her stomach. Rosepink's army? She'd wondered why it had been so very easy to invade Rosepink's castle, but after realizing that the former Fairy Queen had been throwing in the proverbial towel, she'd sort of assumed they'd all just disappated or been sent home. "But... she's... she's powerless..."

"I don't t'ink it be Rosepink leadin' them," Mami Wata replied in her low, smooth voice, and turned away from Toby. "But if you don't know 'bout this, I can honestly say I be a mite more worried... Armies are a human world device, 'gainst to the very nature of most of Believe."

"What could they possibly want? And who would lead them? Everyone who was loyal to Rosepink has been dealt with, Gem said-"

"The Elf Queen isn't as in-control as she seems, girly," Mami Wata interupted, her voice harsh enough to silence Toby completely once more. The chocolate-skinned woman turned slowly to look at the brunette, an angry twist to her lips. "Best be careful of puttin' all your faith in the wrong person. Would have thought that'd be a lesson you'd know well."

Toby flushed in embarrassment, lowering her eyes.

_Dagon's here,_ the snake said. Only, it half hissed it, so it came out more like _Dagon'ssssssssss here_.

Jolted from her mortified state, Toby turned to look in the direction that the snake's gaze had indicated. Entering from the other end of the room was a tall man, broad of chest and fully human shaped, despite the fact he was covered in pale pinkish-green scales and his feet were webbed and finned beginning at the ankles. His hair was thick and curly, a salty white like the frothy tips of the waves. His beard in the front was long as well, gathered and tied together with leather thongs adorned with small shells. He was dressed plainly in a loose white shirt and dark brown pants, bare foot as the rest of the citizens of Bluurble seemed to be. Behind him were three others, one female and two males, all seeming to be the most human-like creatures Toby had yet to see, barring Mami Wata and the fact that they were all covered in fish scales.

"Dagon, Storyteller. Storyteller, the Triton Dagon." Mami Wata gestured with one hand, then returned to stroking the snake around her shoulders.

Dagon strode up to Toby without hesitation and at such a close range, Toby had to crane her head back because he stood easily over six and a half feet tall. She was pretty sure he was as wide as she was tall, especially when he put his hands on his hips, regarding her interestedly. The smell of salt and brine clung to him and stung at her nose. Unbidden, a whisper ran through her mind - _children of Poseidan, able to communicate with Mother Sea herself, often vain and fickle as the -_ he was clearing his throat, shaking his head sadly.

"Your arrival is a bad portent, a bad one indeed, li'l one," his voice was grave and low; his scrutiny of her was thorough enough to make her squirm uncomfortably. "We Sleep for so many years - then we awaken to find our world being torn apart and an army amassing in one of our main cities, declaring martial rule." He sighed, shaking his head. "And you're in the middle of it."

Toby dropped her eyes once again, feeling miserable and wishing desperately for Theo and his willingness to spit fire at people who upset her, or even Thane and his constant, unwavering support.

"Don't be mean to the child, Dagon," Mami Wata chided, sliding back into a seat in front of her table. "She be tryin' the best she can to be fixin' it. Now either help... or be gone."

Toby could see the way the older woman's reproach rubbed at Dagon the wrong way; he was proud, she realized, and didn't like being the second in command. Whatever Mami Wata's position, however, she had enough power that he simply nodded despite the anger that it kindled in his eyes.

"What is it y' need, li'l one?" He turned back towards her, hiding his annoyance under the gruffness of business.

"I.. uh... n-nothing. Just a tail."

Dagon's eyebrows rocketed towards his hairline. "A _tail_?" he repeated incredulously.

Toby floundered more. "Y-yes. A tail. But a special one. A magical one. From Demora. Kitsune. Demora, she's the Kitsune, it's her tail. We've got to find it. For her. Demora... the kitsune..."

"You're looking for a fox tail? Can't say I've seen anything like that down here, little one, so unless you've got a way of finding it, I-"

"I do," Toby blurted out. "Finding it, I mean." She dug into her satchel and pulled out the small rosewood box, lifting it to reveal the compass inside. Right now it was pointing quite steadily in one direction - most likely the direction Theo was in, considering how Toby would have given anything to have him there at that moment. It took her several seconds to focus enough to get the compass to change direction.

_Demora's tail, Demora's tail, Demora's tail..._ she chanted, rewarded a few seconds later by the tiny needle wavering, then flipping direction abruptly.

"That li'l thing... It points to the tail?" Dagon considered the box keenly, then looked over at the Triton standing on the right side of him. "We need one of those."

"It points at whatever I want it to point at," Toby answered, turning in a slow circle until the compass needle stretched out in front of her. A low knot of dread wound its way into the base of her stomach. It was pointing right at the Throne. No, no, of _course_ it was, because it would be far too _easy_ for the Story to just let the tail be a rock on the ground or a seashell she could pick up or something as _simple _as that-

"There's not much in that direction. Homes, mostly. A few shops scattered here and there. And the northern kelp wall, where the Kelpies dwell," Abbie mused quietly as Toby made a slow way across the floor, veering away from the throne - and watching as the needle quite dedicatedly kept pointing straight at it.

Toby could feel the combined weight of the gazes of Mami Wata, Tritons, and Selkies as she made her way past the throne... then reluctantly, around the other side. Finally, she closed the compass and slipped it back into her pocket.

"Well then, that's that. It's obviously this-" She reached out for the sphere resting like a frozen bubble on the cushion. Her fingers hadn't even cleared half of the space when Dagon let loose a bellow of pure fury, his hand clenching and swinging forward. Where there had been nothing, now there was a trident of lightning in his grasp, electricity crackling and arching towards Toby.

There was a jumble of yells, a sharp crack, and someone plowed into Toby full-force, knocking the wind out of her and the brunette right off of her feet. They tumbled to the ground, a tangle of seal pelt, limbs, and satchel, the Storyteller flailing in shock and certain terror that she'd just been hit with an honest-to-god lightning bolt.

She sat up, finding Abbie already in a crouch in front of her, teeth bared and a spear in her hand, held out protectively across Toby's chest. Dagon's trident crackled and hissed, straining against the thin tendril of water that had wrapped around it, averting it just enough that its bolt had missed Toby and her Selkie protector completely. Mami Wata's snake was writhing anxiously, its red eyes boring into Dagon, even as its mistress held onto the other end of the water whip calmly. Behind them, the other Tritons all had some form of trident, though none as large or as brilliant as Dagon's own. Interspersed, armed with spear and chittering anxiously, were the Selkies.

Toby's eyes jerked to the wall behind her head, finding a blackened scorch mark only inches above where she would have been standing.

Dagon was bellowing: "I _knew_ it was all a trick, a damned trick indeed, after our Orb!"

"Silence, fool! She be the Storyteller, not a pawn of some dem world-killer!" Mami Wata hissed, her voice as angry and silibant as the python around her shoulders.

"I am oath-bound to protect her! Do not make the mistake of attacking her again, Dagon!" Abbie barked, her warriors answering in quick supporting chitters.

"Look! I'm sorry! I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to touch it!" Toby yelled into the chaos, clutching the Tome to her chest.

"That Orb is _everything_ to this city, don't you _dare_ put your grimy non-gick hands on it!" The lord of the Tritons turned his fury-filled gaze to Toby once more, lightning crackling in his hands as the trident strained at the whip's grasp. Toby wasn't familiar with the word, but from the press of Mami Wata's lips and the shocked murmur from the Selkies, she gathered that 'non-gick' wasn't exactly a nice thing to say.

"I'm sorry!" Toby babbled again, gripping the Satchel against her chest as if the magic of the Tome would protect her. The thought _I almost just died_ pounded behind her eyes, washing away any piece of Story the Tome might try to supply or any indignation Dagon's slur could have evoked. "I have to take it, though! It's the only way..."

Abbie whipped around, her eyes wide. "What?"

Toby quailed under the addition of the Selkie's angry gaze to the collective glares of the Tritons. "It's the tail... I have to take it... save the world..."

"You don't understand!" The Selkie towered over her, her eyes dark as twin storms and her face wrinkled with fury and fear. "The Orb keeps the water at bay - it keeps us all safe. If you take it, you're destroying _everything!_"

"No, I wouldn't-" Toby protested, then choked on her words, her head pounding so hard she'd thought it'd burst. Why did this whole scene seem so familiar? The sense of deja vu washed through her like a torrent, but Mami Wata's voice cut through the calamity with an edge that caused everyone to freeze where they were.

"_Enough_."

The dark-skinned woman snapped her wrist back, the water whip disappating though not before jerking the tip of Dagon's trident down towards the ground pointedly. Glinting black eyes swept across the room and, as her gaze fell upon them, each Triton and Selkie dropped their weapon and stepped back from their ready state. Finally, her gaze fell on Abbie and Dagon. Only after a moment of hesitation did the two straighten up, Dagon's trident crackling then disppearing from view. Toby watched as he slowly clenched and unclenched his fist, electricity sparking along the back of his knuckles still.

"Now. Explain to de child why you reacted in such a way," Mami Wata said, stern gaze resting squarely on Dagon. Toby watched the line of his jaw harden even more at the command and was suddenly very glad for Abbie standing between her and the Triton lord.

"The Orb that you so carelessly reached for keeps the water at bay from the Court and Inner Ring - it also prevents any human or human construct from stumbling through the kelp barrier." His voice was a low growl and he continued to stare at Mami Wata despite obviously speaking to Toby and no one else. "You remove it and you remove our ability to maintain half of our city... and expose us to the threat of human discovery."

"I didn't kn-" Toby began, but almost as soon as she did, she was cut off again by a wave of Mami Wata's hand.

"Of course you didn'. Now... this be an interestin' dilemma." She slid into a seat at her bench again, spreading her hands along the parchment in front of her as her eyes travelled between Dagon and Toby thoughtfully. "If we be handin' over the Orb, we be damnin' our fair city. If we be refusin' the Storyteller's request, we be damnin' the entire world."

"There has to be another way, Mami," Abbie continued, a desperate note in her pleading voice. "Bluurble is the only city in all of Believe where the children of Mother Sea are safe. If we lose Bluurble, we all and together become fugitives, with no safe place to call our own."

Toby dropped her gaze to the Satchel in her hands, biting her lower lip. Her fingertips itched with the impulse to touch the edges of the Tome's pages, but she simply tightened her grip on the leather bag, frowning at her. She was being faced with the choice of destroying a whole city or condemning the entire world to that very same fate... and she wanted to touch the stupid book? What an idiotic idea.

"To think... the item that so little ago was our salvation is now our condemnation," Dagon said in a low, slow voice, staring at the Orb.

"Um... not to harp on the obvious but... I have _no_ idea what you're talking about," Toby observed drily. Maybe one day she'd meet someone in Believe who actually took the time to bring Toby up to speed instead of jabbering on without bothering to explain a single thing. It wasn't like Toby had been in this world for very long at all; a couple of months wasn't nearly enough to know even a fraction of what the residents of the world took for granted, especially when most of those residents had been fast asleep in a sort of magic-induced hibernation for almost all of those months.

Mami Wata's snake let out a low hiss. _Ssssssssssssad Ssssssssssssstoryteller_, it observed, and Toby felt herself flush in embarassment. Again.

"She be right," Mami Wata mentioned off-handedly, running her fingertips along the parchment in front of her. "You hold the entirety of the Story in your hands, and you be confused as to what be goin' on? Very sad, Storyteller."

"I don't know how to -"

The dark-skinned woman's gaze snapped to Toby, narrow eyed and full of a promise of impending disaster, like the towering shadow of a wave curling overhead. "Swallow your excuses, girl. You _know_ how."

Toby did, and found Mami Wata was right. At least, she hoped the itch in her fingertips was right. It was that or deal with not knowing what was going on, because she wasn't about to ask another question of Mami Wata and her angry (and apparently female) snake. Before she could start wondering about the state of her sanity, she flipped open the Satchel in her hands and pulled out the weathered, battered Tome.

Holding it in her hands, she was quite keenly aware that everyone was staring at her, as if waiting for her head to start spinning. Perhaps it did, when she was in the Tome. She hadn't ever seen herself while in its grasp, after all.

Dagon let loose a low growl in his throat, electricity crackling across his knuckles. "Just a _child _and she holds-"

Toby wasn't listening. She was yielding to the pounding press behind her eyes, the insistent thudding she'd come to recognize as the Tome's equivalent of _listen listen listen._ She only hoped it knew what it was it was telling her as she let go of her hold on reality and was washed into the heady rush of the Tome.

_The white knuckles of waves rushed past the young woman, threatening to tear her from her perch upon the wet, slick stone, but she simply leaned into their press, letting them part around her to punch their way onto the shore. Each breathy rush sent a salty mist catapulting past her face, as if to carry her attention to shore itself. Underneath the seal-pelt hood resting on her head, her dark hair twisted around her, plastered to her neck and shoulder and simaultaneously teased into drifting strands straining for the shore. _

_ Upon the stretch of golden sand between the harsh crashing of the waves and the gentle dance of the thick emerald grass carpeting the slowly rolling hills, a young man sat as well. The sun turned his golden hair to a wavy halo, framing a face that was both noble and kind and quite studiously scrutinizing the text in his hands. He'd come prepared, having spread a piece of woven cloth on the sand underneath him, a satchel overflowing with similar scrolls and parchments resting on the sand to one side of him. As she watched, the young woman sighed, all of her wistful pining pushing to escape in that one simple sound. _

_ The water next to the young woman twisted up in a graceful spiral, then fell back down into a vaguely humanoid shape, two small silver pebbles bubbling up to take the place of eyes, seaweed strands held in a precarious imitation of hair. The ondine blinked its pebble-eyes at the prince, then turned its attention to the young woman, tilting its head to one side. _

_ "Infatuation is your birthright, daughter of the Chieftan, but the city misses you." _

_ The Selkie smiled sadly. "I know, I'm neglecting my duties... but, Dwr, this is different. It isn't just infatuation. I'm _meant_ to be with him..." _

_ Her companion turned its translucent face towards the prince who was still entranced with his bit of parchment. "Every Selkie in your position feels that way. You must remember who you are, Merys. You are not allowed to sucuumb to your people's bane. If you do..." _

_ Merys pressed a hand to her face. "I know, I know... If my feet ever touch the sands of the human's shores, the magic that my bloodline supports will ebb and Bluurble will be destroyed. But it's not fair! I _love_ him!" She flung her hand towards the shoreline. "He fills my every waking thought and moment. Everywhere I go I see the shape of his face and hear the echoes of his voice. I can't live like this, knowing he's there and I'm trapped in this prison of water!" _

_ The ondine lowered its head sadly. "But you must, Merys. Those who call Bluurble home - your people - need you. It was the Selkies' honor to be the ones to create the city under the sea, but with such honor comes your greatest responsibility." Waves fell away from the Selkie's rock as the water elemental twisted around, suddenly rising up in front of the young seal-fairy as if to ensure her complete attention. _

_ "You _must_ be stronger than your bloodline, Merys. If you leave us, if the royal line of the Selkies is broken, we will _all_ suffer."_

_ The Selkie sank down, darkness flickering like a mask across her face as she lowered her head. Her hands curled against the rock underneath her, tipped with white like the waves around her. "I hear you, Dwr," she ground through clenched teeth. _

_ The ondine regarded her for a long moment, seaweed hair washing away, pebble eyes losing their place and sinking into the depths below like fading echoes. As the last of the water elemental's form ebbed into the rest of the sea, one last whisper danced across the waves then was lost amongst their crests. _

_ "For all of our sakes, I hope you do..." _

Toby came back to herself initially aware of hands on her shoulders. She blinked rapidly, the squeezing pressure behind her eyes fading enough to allow her the sight of the Tome's cover and beyond that the smooth rock of the floor. Once again it was only the intervention of someone else - this time the Selkie warrior Abbie - that prevented her from letting her face make close acquaintance with the floor.

It was a terribly annoying habit.

"Merys," she panted. "She left anyway, didn't she?"

Abbie's hands tightened like vices on her shoulders and, irritatedly, Toby shrugged them off. It wasn't _her_ fault that the Selkie princess or whatever she was had put Bluurble in the state it was now. Mami Wata nodded once.

"But I don't understand," Toby continued. "Where did the Orb come from?"

All sets of eyes in the room turned to Abbie. The Selkie warrior didn't move, her lips pressed into a thin line, her gaze a maelstrom that threatened to sink Toby with the sheer intensity of it. The Storyteller inhaled raggedly.

Mami Wata ran a hand along the curve of her snake. "Maybe you should sit down first, dis time," she observed.

Toby glared at her, thought better of it, and, for lack of any chair other than the one that was behind Mami Wata or the one that held the Orb, sat down on the ground before opening the Tome. Resolutely, she looked at Abbie, then put her palm against the pages.

The Story slammed into her like a killer whale.

_The deep black of deep water wrapped around the Selkie as she twisted slowly along the base of the thick kelp leaves, her storm-gray eyes roaming back and forth as she patrolled. The subtly shifting glow of Bluurble cast rainbow colors on her dark pelt, the pouch slung across her chest billowing out at her side as she shifted and turned, revealing glimpses of several small shells and a large, shimmering pearl inside of it. Despite the Selkie's slow swim, the anxiousness that clung about her was thick and palpable, the dart of her eyes searching and scrutinizing. _

All clear,_ reported another Selkie as he slipped through the broad leaves next to Abbie. The Selkie warrior turned to regard the other seal-fairy. _

Did you find her?_ Her voice seemed calm on the surface, but roiled beneath with worry. The other seal simply lowered his head and Abbie didn't need even telepathy to know what it meant. She chattered her teeth against each other. _Where IS she?

_Her words had barely started to ebb when a shimmer ran across the emerald kelp leaves and raced inwards towards the center of the bustling city, like a shockwave generated by the very barrier it originated from. Silence fell as the sharp crack of magic being released snapped through the cool water, the Selkies arching in shock and pain as it rocketed through them. _

What was that?_ the male Selkie barked, the sound cut off by a low groan from the kelp behind him. Abbie's eyes widened as the protesting groan grew, the sea bed buckling as roots tore from the soil, spewing rocks and dirt as the plant wrenched free and began to drift towards the surface. The Selkies watched in shocked horror as up and down the kelp barrier, the largest and heaviest leaves tore themselves free. _

_ From behind them they could hear in the distance a low rumbling, small clouds of dust rising from between the tall coral buildings. A snap ricocheted past them as the vines holding one of the floating homes gave way, the brightly colored fabric walls rippling as the entire construct bobbed towards the surface. _

Merys..._ Abbie ground her teeth, then snapped around._ Tonn, get the rest of the warriors together - we have to evacuate Bluurble, now!

Where will we go?_ the Selkie's voice trembled through the roiling waters. Abbie lunged forward, baring her teeth as she snapped at Tonn's nose. Startled back into action, Tonn nodded once and rolled backwards, shooting through the deep purple on his mission. _

_ Abbie turned back towards the city, staring as a sense of loss washed through her. Another home was floating towards the surface, the magic that had been supporting it gone. Thousands of years... for thousands of years this had been their home, their refuge, and now it was over, all because of one silly Selkie girl. The Selkie hung her head, eyes squeezed shut in grief and anger. _

I would give anything... _anything_... to undo this,_ she whispered to the sea around her. _This is my home - where WILL we go now?

_ Tonn's words rung in her ears as she kicked her fins once, beginning the swim towards the collapsing city in front of her, the echoes of fearful cries reaching the fringes of her mind. The overwhelming reality of her home being torn from her hung like a weight dragging her down, slowing her despite the strong kick of her fins. It was only a minute later she realized that it was more than just the weight of the loss of all she held dear that was weighing her down - the satchel worn around her chest was pulling against her, refusing to keep moving through the water. _

_ The Selkie jerked against the satchel as light shot like arrows from inside, spilling out from the opening as the bag fell away from the small pearl that now hung like a small moon before her. She could only stare as the glowing sphere pulled the water around it in a whirlpool, swelling up like a bubble filling with air, rainbows shifting and hovering along its surface. _

_ Then, without warning, brilliant light exploded from the pearl, making the seal-fairy fling her head to the side to protect herself from being blinded. As quickly as the light had come, it was gone again, and when Abbie opened her eyes once more, it was to a sense of quiet and calm. A low shimmer like shifting light had settled along the coral buildings and danced up the kelp walls, cast from the incandescent orb in front of the Selkie. _

_ The light faded, and with it the low rumble of collapsing structures. Bluurble lapsed back into the deep calm of its aquatic existence. _

_ Abbie spun in a slow circle around the still-shimmering Orb, then reached out and took it in her mouth. A shiver raced through her at the tingle of magic against her teeth, stronger than she'd ever felt before. She ignored it, turning her course towards the Inner Court and Mami Wata. She and Dagon would need to see this, and they would all have to protect it with their lives if what she suspected was true. _

_ She didn't know how, but she knew with absolute certainty that this round thing, this Orb, had just saved Bluurble and all that she held dear. _

As swiftly as it'd claimed her once again, the Story released Toby, making her gasp for breath against the cold wash of reality. She was relieved to find, this time, that she was neither being supported nor was she face-down on the floor. Her palms were still flat on the blank pages of the Tome in her lap and, careful not to look at anyone or anything while she did so, she pulled them back and closed the ancient book.

Flexing her hands, Toby looked up, finding Abbie and the others still staring at her. Waiting, it seemed. She wondered how long they'd been waiting.

"Demora's tails take the shape of whatever it is the being closest to them wants," she finally managed, swallowing hard against the lump of nervousness in her throat. What she wouldn't give for a fire-breathing scaly back-up right then. "It must have sensed Abbie's desire to save Bluurble and became that." She pointed at the Orb.

"You must understand now," Abbie said in a low voice. "You can't take the Orb. Bluurble was nearly destroyed once... it can't happen again, not now..."

"I don't have a choice!" Toby shot back, her voice hoarse with the force of it. "If I _don't_ take it, Bluurble will _still_ be destroyed. All keeping it will do will buy you a little bit more time - no more than a couple of weeks, at most. Don't you see?"

Once again the Selkie drew herself tall, her hands clenching around the smooth wooden shaft of her spear. Toby tried not to dwell on the sensation that, once again, her life was hanging in a precarious balance. Instead, she got to her feet, turning to stare at the Orb with the Tome clenched in her arms. If she just picked it up and left it as the Orb, perhaps it would still keep Bluurble intact, and then there'd be no reason for them to object to her taking it.

After only a second of consideration, however, she dismissed the idea. Even if that did work and she was able to convince them to let her leave with the Orb, there'd come a point in the very near future when she'd have to turn the Orb back into Demora's tail in order to seal the rifts, and she was pretty sure there was no way the magic would continue to work. Then not only would she have a ruined city on her hands, but a sea full of angry fairy tale creatures to contend with. Her not-so-sneaking suspicion was that Mami Wata wasn't exactly the type of being whose vengeance was constrained by rocky shores.

"Then ye be askin' us to seal the fate of our city," Mami Wata said in a tired voice.

Toby's head hung. "I'm so sorry..."

The chocolate-skinned woman pressed her lips together tightly for a long moment, her hand resting on the head of the snake, which was for once, still. Finally she exhaled, turning to Dagon. "Begin evacuation - families of air-breathers first."

Dagon gaped at her, and for several breaths Toby was sure he was going to explode into furious objections once more. The look on the short woman's face, however, was not one to be trifled with. The Triton Lord collapsed into sulking anger. "Where will they go? Bluurble is the only fully aquatic city in Believe. Surely you can't expect them to scatter amongst hamlets and crouch in caverns like animals."

"Kitezh. And Vineta. Both have aquatic areas. Keep dem from heading towards Ys - our people are now homeless. I won't have dem be held hostage by a mysterious army as well."

As the two discussed, Toby couldn't help but stare miserably at the Orb sitting so calmly and serenely on the throne, casting its quivering light with a steadfast constancy. One more feather to put in her cap - not only had she brought civil war to Believe and led to a situation where both of their worlds were in danger of being destroyed, but now she was ruining countless homes and lives.

She thought back to the pity that had been on the Elf Queen's face when she'd pronounced Toby's new role and wondered if Gem had had any inkling of the choices the Storyteller would be facing.

"It will take us a bit to evacuate fully. You'll be waitin' in a room down the hall." Mami Wata's voice directed towards her specifically made Toby lift her head, finding the African woman staring down at her with a hard gaze. Toby couldn't exactly blame her; she wouldn't be too happy with a person who wanted to tear down House, no matter how good the intentions.

"Okay," Toby said, exhaustion clinging to her limbs. There was no argument or discussion about taking the Orb _now_; something Toby found herself unexpectedly glad over. At least she got to recuperate a little before earning herself the ire of the sea-faring population of Believe.

Mami Wata turned to one of the Tritons nearest Toby and nodded once to them. "Show de Storyteller to a room where she can be restin'. De rest of us... well, we be havin' much to do. Much to do indeed..."

The tall scaled man regarded Toby with hard, glittering eyes, but the brunette simply stared back at him calmly. Like he was going to dare risk Mami Wata's ire when she'd put his people's Lord in place only a few minutes ago. He turned and began back the way they'd come originally and Toby moved to follow, anxious to get out of the room and away from the dozen beings currently furious with her.

Before she left, however, she chanced one last glance over her shoulder. Mami Wata was leaning over her table, head down and unscrutable. Beyond her, Toby could see the broad shoulders of Dagon, his eyes nearly shooting sparks as he barked orders to his Tritons and whomever else would listen, practically glowing in rage.

Behind the commotion, like a frozen statue, stood the familiar grey-clad form of the Selkie warrior, her tall figure hunched over in grief as she stared down at the Orb.

Their salvation and their destruction. Toby couldn't imagine all of the things she must be feeling about the Orb at that point in time.

Probably the same things they felt about Toby herself, she thought. She hugged the Tome to her chest, ignoring the thudding press behind her eyes at the closer proximity of the Story's book and feeling very much worth being pitied.


	8. Chapter 7

**(( AN: Long wait, sorry - but SUPER long chapter! :) I'm currently revamping Book 1 from the ground up. I'm excited, I think this version is going to finally be print-worthy! ))**

**7.**

The room that the Triton had shown her to was small, with what seemed like a futon against one wall, a low coral table at a right angle. There were three openings to the room - the door that Toby had come through, a small window directly across from the doorway, and a circular skylight taking up much of the ceiling. The door was of smooth, worn wood like a ship's door; the window was curtained by a gauzy piece of fabric. Only the skylight overhead was unobstructed, something Toby found oddly peculiar. They were at the bottom of the sea; _everything_ passed above.

She spent several minutes inspecting the window as it was in her reach, distracted from her despair by her utter fascination with the smooth surface of water that stretched across the empty space. It ebbed and flowed, just like the surface of a pond or the calm sea above, not even dripping a little through the window frame. When she reached out one finger and poked it, ripples spread across, dashing themselves against the stone walls on all sides. Not a single drop fell through the frame into the room itself.

After a moment it occurred to her that if she were to disturb the Orb at this very instant, she'd get a faceful of water. Sobered by the thought of what she was about to do and the imminent destruction of this peaceful palace, she retreated to the futon. She had no idea how long it would take - Mami Wata had said "a bit" which Toby could only guess to be a couple hours at least - so the logical part of her mind suggested she try and get some sleep. She was, after all, exhausted, and she had no idea how long this whole ordeal had taken. Bluurble didn't seem to have nights or days like the surface above, existing in a state of perpetual near-twilight. At least, as long as Toby had been there, the amount and intensity of light hadn't varied even a little. She supposed it only made sense. This far under the water, there'd be no light at all except for that which was generated by the city itself. Who knew how much of that light would be snuffed out at the removal of the Orb.

Groaning, Toby flung herself back on the futon, covering her face with her hands. This was all so ridiculous - she was supposed to be worrying about pimples on her face, the pop quiz coming up in Math, or whether she'd escape that school day with her dignity relatively intact. She _certainly_ wasn't supposed to be missing her dragon boyfriend in a magical city leagues underneath the sea while agonizing over whether or not it was right of her to ruin countless innocent sea creatures' lives. Sea beings? Toby wasn't even sure what the proper way to refer to them was.

Rolling onto her side, she stared dismally across the room towards the far wall. She could barely remember what it was like to have a normal life, where all she did was try and remain unseen, complete her homework, and bide her time until she escaped home to her books and her posies. All of this was so much _bigger_ than she was, so impossibly large. Other teenagers all over the world were stressing about their messy room; she was sitting here stressing about dealing out certain doom to an entire civilization.

Maybe one day in a Believe history book they'd record her name - Tobias, Final Storyteller and Destroyer of Bluurble.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to ignore how the empty silence pressed down around her except for the ever present, subtle insistent throb of the Tome at the back of her mind. No one had ever said anything about the Story being so impossibly _impatient_. It was as if it wouldn't be happy until she sat there and opened her mind to it and let it pour all of its endless tales and fables into her until her skull exploded.

"I'm not paying attention to you," she told the Tome resting expectantly on the table. "I'm going to sleep."

She turned to face the wall, squeezed her eyes shut, and commanded herself, as firmly and no-nonsensically as she could, to go to sleep.

What felt like several hours later, she gave up telling herself to do so. Instead she lay on her back, staring up through the watery skylight and through the shifting colors of the water towards the darkness that it disappeared into above. She couldn't stop thinking about what she'd seen in her glimpse of Abbie's Story - how the entire city seemed to simply start crumbling, and the Selkie's agony over losing the place she loved so much. Toby couldn't imagine how happy Abbie must have been when she'd been able to return to Bluurble after hundreds of years of being stuck as a human. Now, barely a month later, Toby was tearing it all away from her again.

She sighed, gave up fooling herself, and sat up, staring down at the Tome. The throbbing at the back of her mind intensified.

Raising her hands, she pressed them to her forehead. "No. Shut up," she told the Tome. It just kept knocking - _listen listen listen_. Really, she'd met two year olds with more consideration for a person's mental state. The thought tugged a smile to the corner of her mouth and she stood, stretching her arms up over her head as she gazed up through the skylight towards the sea stretching so endlessly above.

Two small gray pebbles drifted across in a tangle of seaweed. As she watched, curious, the seaweed stopped as suddenly as if grabbed, the pebbles drifting a only a bit further until they, too, froze in place. The smooth plane of water quivered, then abruptly bowed out. Toby could only stare as seaweed strands swung free of the constraints of the surface, framing a bubbling bulge that adjusted itself into the shape of a roughly humanoid face. Two pebble-eyes blinked as the face was joined by a body, arms pulling themselves through the skylight and taking hold of the edge of the stone, an indistinct jumble of water dropping through and landing in front of Toby with a spray of droplets. Pebbles and seaweed swirled through the water barely held in a circular form, finally whipped back towards their rightful places as the ondine got its face back together. Literally.

Toby stared, pretty sure it was rude but unable to keep her jaw where it belonged.

_Storyteller,_ the ondine greeted her with another ripple of its indistinct, tear-drop shaped body, just its head remaining human-like. Toby wondered if she'd ever be able to handle situations like this without having to tell herself firmly not to scream, faint, or otherwise embarrass herself.

"Uh... hi?"

The ondine tilted its head just a bit too far to one side. Toby resisted the urge to look away. _Uh-hi. _

For a moment they both stared at each other. Finally, Toby cleared her throat. "Can I, uh, help you?"

The ondine let out a keening noise, its face falling away into the rest of it. Toby stumbled back as the entire mass of water vibrated, splashing back and forth like a glass of water being furiously shaken.

"St-Stop! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

A roughly face-shaped mess of water was thrust abruptly into Toby's face, cutting her off mid-stutter. The ondine seemed to collect itself, the small stones bouncing back into place and seaweed drifting back to the top of its head. _It is I who must be sorry, Storyteller. I overheard what is to become of our fair city, and why this has come to be so. It is I who must pay penance. I knew of Merys's weakness, I did... but I did nothing. It is I whom should bear this burden, not you who have done naught..._

The water-elemental sank into an oversized puddle once more and Toby had to stop herself from reaching out to pat the top of it reassuringly. "Dwr?" The ondine let out another keen that Toby recognized as water vibrating _really_ fast. "Hey... listen, don't blame yourself. You tried to stop her - I saw it in the Tome. There's no one to blame but Merys herself."

_Your words are kind, Storyteller. I thank you._

Toby felt a quiver of relief that the ondine wasn't about to start keening again, dropping into a crouch in front of the ball of shifting water. Dwr brought its face into focus again, peering at Toby with its seaweed hair waving gently around its stone eyes.

"Believe me, I'm feeling bad enough for both of us. I just wish there was another... Hey, wait a second. What if we just went and got Merys back? I mean, the magic depends on her being in Bluurble, yes? So what if we bring her back? Then I could take the Orb and it wouldn't matter."

_That is impossible, now..._ The ondine's face mimicked a sad expression, as if to soften the words it was accompanied by.

"Why?" Toby asked. "Surely you know where she is..."

_And will forever more. When Merys left, hundreds of years ago, she left behind all that made her a Selkie. She gave up Bluurble, the Sea, and her longevity. The last daughter of the last Chieftain is buried on a cliff overlooking the Sea she never stopped regretting she left._

Toby opened her mouth to ask why it was that Merys couldn't have simply donned her pelt again and returned to the sea, as Abbie and the other Selkies seemed capable of doing, but then closed it a second later. Neither Abbie nor any of the other Selkies had the magical existence of an entire city depending on them remaining in the ocean. Doubtless whatever Merys had had to do to take a fully human form had entailed making sacrifices to free herself of the spell.

The brunette sank down onto the futon again, feeling defeated once more. "Then we're back to Bluurble being destroyed..."

_Yes..._ The ondine lapsed back into an undefined water bubble, roiling as if to indicate its inner turmoil. Toby stared down at it for a long moment, then sighed once more, propping her elbows on her knees and staring down at the tips of her toes.

"Do you think they'll hate me? The people of Bluurble?"

The ondine pulled itself up into a mimic of Toby sitting, half-slumped, two lumps imitating what Toby could only imagine to be elbows and knees. _Right now? Yes._ Toby couldn't help but smile sadly at the ondine's honesty. _It is very hard for beings to put aside their own cares and concerns and consider the bigger story at hand. Doing such takes work - work that few are willing to put in unless forced._

Dwr tilted its head, peering at Toby with an expression on its indistinct face that Toby could only describe as.. well, morose. _You consider the wrong thing, Storyteller_.

"Oh? What should I consider then?"

_Whether or not their hatred is reason to allow them all to die,_ the ondine said in the calmest, most reasonable voice Toby had ever heard. _Their anger now will allow them to live, to continue on. Then you shall have the chance to fix this and win their love. The beings of Bluurble are like the Sea herself - fickle and quick to change on the surface, but with their loyalties running deeper than any land being can boast. _

_ They will realize what you've done for them, Storyteller, and they will love you then._

Toby's smile took on more of an honest tinge. "Thanks, Dwr."

_I just wish my words had reached Merys the same way,_ the ondine replied, hanging its head. Toby wondered if there was a moment that the ondine didn't dwell on what it obviously considered to be its fault and felt a sudden desire to fix it - for the water elemental as well. The same rush was followed closely by a sobering _but how?_ and lapsed back into resignation.

"Tell me about Bluurble," she blurted out a second later. "I mean... I've only seen a glimpse of it and now I won't see any more than that. I should know what I'm missing, right?"

Dwr considered for a moment, turning its face upwards, towards the skylight, at an angle that made Toby's neck uncomfortable in turn. _Bluurble is a city of lights,_ the ondine finally said, its voice vibrating with pride and love.

_Here, there used to only be darkness and cold. Those of the Sea were doomed to live on the fringes of the other great cities in Believe, never having a real part in it. The Elder Races had too much on their hands to consider the eclectic group of beings that sprang from the depths of the ocean - there was the Fir Bolg invasion, the rise of the humans, the Great Betrayal of the dragons, the war surrounding the Pendragon... Too much to devote any thought to the waters. _

_ Then came the first Selkie. No one remembers her name - she was the daughter of a fisherman who'd fallen in love with a Prince. She sought his hand and his heart, but he rejected her. Twice more she begged for even a chance until finally he cast her aside. Every Selkie knows, from the moment they're born, the last words a human ever spoke to the Mother Selkie - 'If you love me so much, prove it! Cast yourself into the sea!' He didn't realize that she did love him, and the Sea loved her. So when she threw herself from the cliffs, the Sea sent the seals to aid her. They blew bubbles into her face and the Sea's magic gave her new life - as the first Selkie. _

The ondine paused to shift, settling down into a shape reminiscent more of a comma than a human. Toby waited patiently, knowing by now the folly of interrupting a good story.

_The Mother Selkie traveled her new home and was saddened to see its peoples so scattered and disconnected. So she swam to the darkest, coldest part of the ocean, until it seeped through even her thick pelt and the air in her lungs was almost gone. It was there she curled up on the rocky sea bed and said to the Sea 'I wish this to be Home.' _

_ And Mother Sea listened. Corals grew up around the still Selkie, and vents cracked open, spewing out life-giving heat. Colors of every indescribable shade surrounded the Selkie, allowing the thick, protective kelp walls to grow tall and strong. The Mother Selkie looked around herself and was overjoyed. With newfound strength, she crossed the width and breadth of the oceans, telling all who would listen of their new home. Mother Sea's children rejoiced, and in only a few short months, Bluurble was a living, thriving city under the watchful eye of the Selkies and Mami Wata, who had, up until that time, been doomed to travel the waters of her homeland alone. _

"Where do the Tritons come in, then?" Toby asked of the ondine. The water elemental turned pebble-eyes to her, considering her question before answering.

_Later. Much later. They can live on land indefinitely, you see, as long as they are close to a source of saltwater. For a long time they spurned the idea of Bluurble, leaving it to the Selkie Chieftain and Mami Wata to run. It wasn't until much later they lost care for the follies of land and retreated to the place they were now calling Atlantis. Their position here has always been full of strife - they are the children of the oldest of the Old Races, after all, and Dagon considers it his birthright to be obeyed. Mami Wata keeps a tight leash on them, however, and up until Merys's desertion, the Selkies were too strong and too beloved to threaten. _

_ Now, however, many blame the Selkies for Merys's actions and the Tritons have gained considerable favor among the sea-dwellers. I think Abbie is as close to a leader as the Selkies have, and she has been lost for many centuries. There is much unrest in Bluurble, unfortunately..._

The ondine let out another quivering chime, this time a sound Toby recognized as being as close to a sigh as the living blob of water could manage. _It seems so unfair to me that Mother Sea would take the Selkies' betrayal so personally..._

"Why would you say that?" Toby asked. She was getting far too comfortable with things like "the Story" and "the Sea" given personalities and choices in matters, the logical part of her brain informed her. _Shut up,_ she informed the logical part of her brain. She'd long ago decided that that particular fight was not one she wanted to constantly be having. Besides, even if they didn't have a great cosmic awareness or whatever one wanted to attribute to them, it certainly seemed the easiest way to explain why things were happening the way they were.

_It is the only reason I can think of that our city's well being would come to depend on the tail of a land creature, instead of being sustained through the strength of the water's children themselves._

"Maybe it can't do it all over again. Like it's a one time deal."

The ondine looked curiously puzzled at that statement, tilting its head to one side as it regarded her intently. _I... suppose that could be true... After all, there only ever was one Selkie created, and she gave life to all other Selkies. _

Toby considered how weird it'd be to fall in love with a pretty girl, only to find out your baby was going to be a seal pup most of the time. Well. Not the weirdest thing she'd encountered in Believe. "Maybe, after this whole thing with the rifts and the world ending is resolved, I can find a way to get Verum and the Fairies to build a new city for all of you. I mean... I'm destroying this one, it's the least I can do."

Dwr's entire being quivered, like a glass of water on a table that'd just been slapped. _We will all hope for such as that. For my part, I can only seek more ways to redeem myself for allowing Merys to put us all in this position._

The Storyteller pressed her lips together, unhappy with the ondine's continued berating of itself, but unable to think of anything to say to completely ameliorate the water elemental's angst. Instead, she let her breath out slowly, leaning back against the cool stone of the palace's walls. Her eyes drifted up towards the watery skylight (sea light?) overhead. The Tome thrummed at the back of her mind, even more insistent as before, and she found herself musing out loud in order to keep her focus from slipping.

"I wonder how long it'll be until-"

Her wondering was disrupted by a sharp crack, louder than Toby had ever heard before, followed by a low rumbling that shook the entire building around them. The brunette surged to her feet, instinctively grabbing the Tome with her other hand, the water held back by the windows and skylights churning furiously.

"What was that?" The deep rumbling hadn't abated, but grew even more intense, causing the floor itself to buck underneath Toby's feet. "Earthquake?"

The ondine at Toby's side seemed completely incapable of keeping a distinct shape, appearing to be no more than a quivering, gravity-defying puddle. _No... No, something is wrong! This isn't right at all!_ Dwr cried, then shot forward, towards the window.

"Dwr! Wait!" Toby half-reached for the elemental, but it was too late. The watery being had disappeared into the rest of the ocean and was gone. Water dripped around Toby from the opening above her and she felt a knot twist at the base of her stomach. Was someone removing the Orb already? But they weren't ready...!

Flinging the Tome onto her back, Toby half-ran, half-stumbled out the door and back down the hallway towards the room she'd left what seemed like only minutes before. Several tall beings, armed and barking out commands, brushed past her, forcing her to flatten her back against the wall. Selkies and Tritons alike, Toby realized, so it wasn't a coup d'etat or civil war. She watched them as they disappeared around the bend, another tremor shaking the building around her. At least the sound seemed to be fading, not getting worst. Maybe it had just been an earthquake...? It wasn't like Believe was on a different planet, surely they had to deal with acts of nature as well.

The tall archway of the main hall stretched up in front of Toby. Without hesitation, she shoved her way through the thick double doors, finding herself plunged from the dark press of fear-shadowed halls directly into the fierce hubbub of near-panicked organization.

"-the north, head along the Kelp lines-" Abbie was yelling at several tight-lipped warriors. "Get everyone out of that quarter _now!_"

"Get all the air-breathing families out of Atlantis immediately! Send them all to Kitezh - they can travel elsewhere from there. Load Namazu up and get him out of here!" Dagon was saying, seeming, for once, more collected than just about anyone else in the room. "Why aren't the Zaratan here yet? We need those blasted oversized turtles!" Beyond him, hunched over her table was the form of Mami Wata and her snake, only her back and bowed shoulders visible.

Toby stumbled further into the room, drawing the gaze of the Lord Triton. "What's going on?" Her voice seemed to garner the dark-skinned woman's attention, for she stood, turning as she did so to reveal what she'd been so studiously staring at. It made the brunette forget to breathe.

Hovering only a few inches above the table was a whirling disk of water, the edges sending up a fine spray. The picture shining through the water, however, was what drew the Storyteller's gaze. It was obviously Bluurble, from the coral buildings to the shining lights to the tall kelp wall. But crisscrossing the beautiful city like an angry red wound was a deep crack, the stone curled back from it as if peeled. Between the jagged edges it was black - not the deep inky black of the deep ocean, but a flat, oppressive black that seemed to devour even the light that dared trespass into its crevice. It was like the world had split in two to reveal the utter _nothing_ beyond.

"Wh-What is that?" Toby asked, keenly aware of how tremblingly tinny her voice sounded.

"That, Storyteller, be a Rift," Mami Wata replied tiredly.

Toby felt the air leave her in one swift rush and refuse to return. Gripping the Tome to her chest desperately, she slowly sank down onto the bench in front of the table. It was real. Everything Gem had told her, about the world being destroyed, about it being torn apart... It'd seemed so impossibly big that the brunette hadn't truly felt the gravity of the situation. Now, however, it hit home like a sledgehammer, leaving her just staring at the ugly black tear across the beautiful, color-filled city that up until a few minutes ago had seemed so picturesque, so perfect.

That was going to happen _everywhere_. At her school, at the beautiful Fairy Court of Avalon, at her _home_. That ugly black darkness was going to rip through everything she knew and held dear until there was nothing left except that _nothingness_.

"Wh.. what can we do?" Toby finally managed, turning to look over her shoulder at Mami Wata. The chocolate-skinned woman's eyes were glued to the watery picture, not even sparing a glance for the brunette.

"... nothing," she finally managed, with a soft sigh.

"What?" Toby's eyes raced from the African woman to the Selkie, then to the tallest of the Tritons, finding the same defeated look on all of their faces. "We're not going to do _anything?_"

"There's nothing t' be done," Mami Wata said in her low, smooth voice, only a small hitch betraying other than the utter calm she was embodying. "We've been preparin' for de city's destruction for most o' the day. We finish what we were doin', and there'll be no one to be harmed by de Rift." She put a hand on the head of her white python, which had its head resting on her chest, still as if she, too, had completely given up. "No use fixin' a city we're jus' gonna be leavin'."

She turned to Abbie and Dagon, her head held high. Her voice snapped like a whip into the despondent silence that had draped over all of them like a thick, heavy veil. "Well? Get to it. We've still got a fair part of the city dat be needin' to be emptied."

Toby stopped listening as warriors began barking orders again, her eyes unable to leave the picture hovering mid-air in front of her. It was so imminent, now - the destruction of Bluurble and, fast on its heels, the loss of the entire world, to boot. It seemed so unfair, so wrong, that she was this allegedly powerful thing, this Storyteller, and she was sitting there, holding a dusty old book, and doing nothing.

Her head sank as part of her tried to argue with the rest of her - she was doing a lot, she was trying to save the world, they had two tails already, etc, etc... - but it hardly seemed to matter in the face of the impending loss of an entire city and countless beings' homes and lives.

All because the Mother Selkie's last daughter couldn't get over some guy she hadn't even met.

"Really, how unfair is that? Putting all their eggs in the royal basketcases," she whispered to the Tome. It thrummed at the back of her mind, less insistent now, more of a calm purr, like it was giving her room to think for herself, to realize something, to put all of the pieces together...

"Storyteller?" Abbie's hand descended to her shoulder, but her head was pounding, too full of _it_, to answer.

Toby gripped the Tome tightly to her chest, tucking it underneath her chin. It was right there, she could feel it, like her fingers were brushing it -

"Toby?" The Selkie warrior crouched in front of her.

It was right there - she reached into the Tome and pulled out what she needed.

_"Merys? Are you all right?" The young girl, clad in her oversized seal pelt, crouched in front of the other, even younger girl. The little girl was sitting on the rough stone floor of the throne room, staring up at a painting of a family - the man and woman had a noble tilt to their chins, kindly benevolent looks on their dark-eyed faces. In between them, held with obvious love and devotion, was the very same little girl who now sat in front of it, her eyes puffy and raw from tears. _

_ "Where'd they go, Abbie? Why'd they leave me?"_

_ "Oh, Mer..." Abbie sat down next to the little Selkie, pulling Merys close. She buried her face in the older Selkie's pelt, her tiny shoulders quivering as she cried. "I know it's hard right now, little one... but you don't have to be sad." _

_ "I'm all al-al-alone," Merys sobbed. _

_ "That's not true," Abbie soothed, stroking Merys's hair reassuringly. "You have Bluurble. And you have all of the other Selkies. We'll never leave you." She rested her cheek against the top of Merys's head. "After all, we're all family." _

Toby stood even before she'd completely freed her mind from the Tome's grasp, earning herself a moment of terrified _oh god I'm going to fall_ as the world buckled and swirled around her before she realized that she was standing, successful, and not about to fall at all. Part of it might have been Abbie's hands on her shoulders, but the brunette hardly even noticed. She gripped the edges of the Tome fervently, shaking it back and forth as if she wanted to sprinkle the knowledge, what she'd just realized, on the floor for all to see.

"That's it, that's it, god, why didn't I see it before?" she crowed, her head spinning with triumph.

"T-Toby? Maybe you should sit down, you're acting kind of-" Abbie began, but Toby cut her off by spinning to face her.

"Dwr said that when Merys left, she left _everything_ behind. Was her crown left too?"

Abbie's mouth moved soundlessly, her mind not working fast enough to supply meaningful sound to accompany it. Finally, she managed a barely coherent "wah?"

"What be happenin'?" Mami Wata questioned from one side, her hand on her hips and her ebony eyes like two pinpricks bearing into Toby's skull. The brunette only wished it would work and spill out the knowledge, the big, huge _knowing_ that the Tome had shoved into her brain, and let her have some space to think. Her hands worked on the spine of the Tome, agitatedly.

"Her crown! Merys's! She had to have a crown, or a medallion, or something to show she was the ruling Chieftan, right? And she had to have left it, Dwr said she left _everything_, and it wouldn't be _right_ if she hadn't, I just... I know she did, so where is it?"

Surprisingly, it was Dagon who roused to action first, turning to one of his Tritons, a burly female with pearl scales on her breastplate. "Go get the Chieftain's necklace and bring it here - _now!_"

The Triton turned and flitted from the room, fast as a sea kestrel. Dagon turned back to Toby, a deep furrow to his brow. "I better not regret that, Storyteller..."

"You won't. You won't - look, this sounds crazy, but I think I can fix it. I think I can fix Bluurble!"

"Fix it? You mean the Rift?" Abbie asked, glancing over her shoulder at the swirling water-picture.

Toby deflated a little bit. "Well... no. I don't know what to do about that. But - I know what to do about the Orb. I know how to fix the magic that was broken."

Mami Wata's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Y'd better not be foolin', Storyteller..."

Toby waved one hand in front of her defensively, fending off the short woman's ire. "No, no, I'm not! Look." She set the Tome down on the table, flipping it open. Of its own accord, ink sprawled across the white expanse, sketched into existence by an invisible hand. The strokes formed the picture of a young woman, pretty though clad in patched rags, with wild, untamed hair waving about her shoulders. Her face gazed back at them from the pages of the Tome with a soulful, knowing look. It was the look of a woman who'd loved and lost and understood all that was in between.

"So, Dwr - the ondine - told me this story, right? It's been sticking in my mind. It's about the first Selkie."

"The fisherman's daughter," Abbie volunteered, and Toby nodded. In front of them, on the open page, the drawing had continued to grow - faces around the Mother Selkie's,and then faces behind them, echoing descendants working through the ages.

"Right. But." She paused, fishing for the words around the fervor that had gripped her. "It's all from her, right? All the other Selkies. You're all her children. So - if the magic is contained in the bloodline that came from _her_ -"

"Dere's no royalty," Mami Wata murmured.

"Yes. No. Well - really, the magic is in _every_ Selkie's. So if we take Abbie here, and we make her the new Chieftain..." Toby trailed off, looking between the three of them (four, considering Mami Wata's snake) searchingly. Near the margin of the Tome, she could see Abbie's face just finished being sketched by the Tome, and beyond her Merys and many of the other Selkies that Toby had met that very day.

"You really think that all you have to do is put the necklace on her and everything will be fixed? How childish do you take us to be?" Dagon ground out in his gravelly voice. Toby stared back at him, hands splayed on either side of the Tome, which seemed to have finished its picture and was still once more.

"No, actually, I don't. I'm going to write it in the Tome."

The collective inhale was enough to give Toby pause at her very own words; she was suddenly keenly aware of all of the eyes on her. Her mind flashed back to Gem's words, about how the last ones that had tried to change the Story had been driven mad, but she refused to show any doubt on her face. This had to work - it _had_ to. She couldn't live with herself knowing she'd destroyed not only an entire city but the homes of countless of innocent beings who'd already lost several thousand years while the world around them continued on, oblivious.

If she had to go a little crazy to make things better for them, she figured it'd be a fair trade. She was pretty sure she was completely bonkers already, anyway.

"Ye're risking a terrible lot, Storyteller," Mami Wata said in her low voice, her steady gaze unwavering. Toby tried her best to return it with as much confidence as she could muster, despite the fact that the words had simply blurted themselves out of her mouth without much accompanying thought or consideration.

"Well if I can fix this, you all get to deal with the Rift," she replied, lightly as possible.

Mami Wata simply shook her head.

Behind them, the door swung open, the burly female Triton stepping inside bearing a complex necklace of pearls and sapphires nestled in half of a seashell. It sparkled and tingled at the edges of Toby's mind with the unmistakable touch of something that was incredibly powerful and old. It was the same sensation as she felt around the Tome; the same as she'd felt around the ancient, magical sword Kjavaeos that she'd borne for so long before her boyfriend had fixed it and won the right to bear it.

The Triton handed the necklace to Dagon, who held it out to Mami Wata. The dark-skinned woman accepted it, then turned to stare at Toby once more.

"Last chance, Storyteller, to change your mind."

Toby sat down, ignoring the sudden wrenching in the pit of her stomach. Swallowing, she forced her voice to come out calm and steady. "Let's do it."

Mami Wata nodded once, then turned to Abbie, holding the necklace-bearing seashell in her palms. The gray-eyed Selkie was standing stiff and tall, her gaze resting unwaveringly on the short woman in front of her. "Abbie. You know de responsibilities of the Chieftain. You know if you swear dis, you can never be leavin' the depths of the ocean again. All of our lives be dependin' on dat. Can you do dis for us, for your people, for your home?"

"Mami, I wandered the shores for far, far too many years. I loved and I lived and the entire time, my only thought was of returning to my home here under the waters. I have no desire to ever leave again." The Selkie's voice rang with a note of complete confidence, easing the nagging worry in the pit of Toby's stomach. She thought back to when she'd given Abbie the Kiss that allowed her to regain her pelt and return to the sea, and the utter joy that had hummed off of the dark-skinned seal-Fairy. The brunette didn't doubt the Selkie's words for a second.

Neither did Mami Wata, apparently, for she nodded once. "Den with all the power bequeathed to me as Mother Sea's eldest daughter, with the rights granted to me by my position here in Bluurble, and in approval of a delegate of the Council themselves," her eyes flicked to Toby, who straightened slightly in surprise at the additional title tacked onto her already annoyingly long list, then back to Abbie, "I pronounce you, Abbie, head warrior of the Selkies, the new Chieftain of Bluurble."

Solemnly, Abbie bowed, lowering her head, and Mami Wata carefully draped the collar of glittering, sparkling pearls and gems around the Selkie's neck. For a moment it seemed too big, sagging dangerously low, but then the Selkie stood tall once more and it was perfect around her neck, resting along the shoulders of her pelt, underneath the folds of the hood.

As one, they all turned to look at Toby.

She swallowed hard, reaching for the reed pen on the flat stone table in front of her. Dipping it in the clamshell of ink to its side, she smoothed open a blank page of the Tome with her other hand. This time, no sketching pictures appeared sprawling across its span. It remained blank, still, and waiting.

Toby took a deep breath, and leaned over, lowering the nib of the pen to the page.

_The dark-haired woman with the storm-gray eyes stood on the long, dark stretch of dirty brown sand, letting just the very tips of the waves lap at her toes. Behind her a man stood in the waving, sparse grass, holding the reigns of the chestnut stallion behind them in one hand. "Come on, Abbie. Stop trying to make me feel bad, you know I can't give it back. Now let's go home, all right? Your home with me, not under there... I love you, right?" _

_ She lowered her head. "... I love you too, Leon..."_

Toby finished the letter she was writing, shaking her head to clear the remnants of the Story fragment from behind them. Swallowing, she dipped the pen to the paper once more.

_"-ane, duck!" Devon bellowed, swinging her fist right at the ebony-haired dragon's face. _

_ "Augh!" He jerked to the ground, the crimson-haired dragon's fist flying over his head and right into the smooth white-yellow beak of what seemed to be a giant black bird with glowing golden eyes that throbbed with fury. _

_ Her fist connected squarely and the roc went tumbling back in a fury of feathers and long, razor sharp talons. Devon leaped over Thane, grinning maniacally as she pursued the bird. "Help the Twins!" she yelled, pounding along the rock surface towards the bird that had already recovered, its wicked curve beak clattering in anxiety. _

_ Thane rolled to his side, looking to where there was a crumpled form against the far wall, the green-hair of one of the Twins draped along one side, blood tingeing the tips of it. "Edlyn! Edolie!" _

She was aware of the pounding in her head severe enough that she was sure at any minute her skull was going to explode with the force of it. She blinked rapidly, aware that her breathing was rapid and ragged, and only half of the sentence before her was written. Someone was talking - dimly, she heard her name and something about stopping, but she didn't have the room in her brain to fit it in so she simply let it slide.

The tip of her tongue darted out to wet her dry lips as she dipped the nib of the pen, putting it to paper once more. This time, the Story welled up not in a single coherent piece, but in several fractured pieces, each jostling for her attention.

_"-he Rift is spreading out into the street. It's devouring cars. We have to get out of here before it destroys the entire building!" Julie was yelling at her. Toby was aware of her entire body aching, but still she shook her head resolutely. _

_ "No, there's only about two dozen left between us and the Origin. We HAVE to get there, or this is all for nothi-"_

_ "-really think that is why I allowed you entrance, Storyteller?" The man was old, bald, wrinkled, and most definitely not human, from his pointed ears to the way his eyes gleamed in the darkness. Next to him stood a tall beast Toby could only half see, the rest of him blurring out like the Story couldn't quite sketch him into definition. _

_ "Give it to us, or we'll just take what we need," Devon growled in a low voice. A sharp snarl came from the indistinct creature, making the red-haired dragon take a half-step back. Almost instantly she snapped forward, again, her fists clenched - _

_ "- don't, Theo!" She gripped his wrist and hands desperately, putting all of her power into keeping a grasp on him. Blood ran down the right side of his face from a terrible gash on his forehead. He smiled sadly. _

_ "I have to, Toby. It's the only way." He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead, a strange sort of finality in the gesture. "I love you." Then he turned to the being next to him. "Let's go, there's not much ti-"_

_ "- kill them! AMBROSIUS!" the man bellowed, hand clenching high a golden key.-_

_ - A high window stretched from the worn stone floor nearly up to the high domed roof of the room, spilling a narrow band of light into the otherwise dark room. Through the window, in the distance, Toby could see circuling seagulls against an azure sky. A slim figure stood in front of the light, framed by it until only the edges of her weren't shadowed in a darkness that paled that around her. She was petite of figure, the light glinting off strands and illuminating them a brilliant rose hue. Her eyes glittered with a deadly dance, a long, curved sword that seethed with a pale blue flame gripped in her other hand. _

_ "I can see you, Tobias," she said, into the empty room, and Toby knew she was talking to her _through_ the Story. "You took everything from me. You ruined it all... So I'm going to finish this. Listen well, Storyteller, because I am going to destroy _everything_ you hold dear." _

_ The woman took a single step forward, the light dancing along a white rose pendant on her chest. Her eyes bored into Toby, even though the brunette knew neither of them were in the same room, that this was just a vision, and that there was no conceivable way that the cruel-eyed woman could know that Toby could see her. "Prepare yourself, Toby. I'm going to kill them all. You can't stop me - this world will be destroyed. I promise you." _

Her pen stopped. Instantly, a rush of hot-cold ran through her, the familiar tingling of magic though far more intense and concentrated than she'd ever felt. It welled up inside of her until she was sure her entire body was going numb from the sensation, then, abruptly released. _It worked!_ raced through her mind. Either that or she'd just destroyed a lot of items in the throne room and they were all going to be very, very annoyed with her.

She tried to look around to see, but her head was spinning, the page in front of her doing flips and whirls with the best of ballerinas. _I'm going to faint_, she thought as she squinted her eyes, trying to see the page, make sure it was complete, make sure it was done.

There, scrawled across the white stretch in front of her, was a black sentence, the edges glimmering with a golden light. The words danced across her vision even as scarlet invaded it. She raised her hands, feeling the slightest tremor of surprise at the sight of them drenched with vivid crimson, rivulets running across her palms and dripping off onto the white pages and the stone table beneath them. Blood. She had blood on her hands? That was a LOT of blood, too. A very unhealthy amount of blood, to say the least. There was a flurry of activity around her, but she could only hear it at all as if from a great distance. In the back of her mind, she thought - _oh. I know what this is._

Then: _oh, I'm fainting._ The last of her strength fled and her head hit the table in front of her, cushioned by the many pages of the Tome. Even as her eyes slid shut, she felt a sliver of accomplishment, hugging the sight of those increasingly messy and scribbled letters to her as darkness folded her into its depths.

**Abbie is the new Chieftain.**


	9. Chapter 8

**(( AN: 4 months since my last update. That's a new and crappy record on my part. Sorry guys! If it's any consolation, I've spent a ton of time on a spoilerific-Wiki: go to .com and enjoy. I'm also thinking about putting up the first chapter of the full rewrite for you guys to read. What do you think? **

**Remember, let me know what you think! Thanks all, and happy reading! :D )) **

**8.**

The first thought that entered Toby's foggy mind was a simple one: _I really have to stop doing this. _This was the third time she'd woken up not sure what physical state she was in or where she was, to boot, and she wasn't fond of the experience. Or trying to make her eyelids cooperate. They were always so ornery when she'd died or even only almost died. Not that she was sure it'd even been that bad, though the memory of how much blood she'd had on her hands did give her pause.

Finally, she managed to get them open, focusing on the wall across from her. Smooth coral, framing a window that wasn't filled with glass but with a subtly shifting stretch of water. Still in Bluurble, then, she decided, and then decided to try and sit up.

The small movement triggered a surprise attack.

"Oh _thank god_ Toby!" and a blonde-haired figure flung herself on Toby, a motion that made her land right on Toby's arms (which she'd just realized were _killing_ her) and caused her to let out a strangled cry of pain.

"Oh! Oh I'm sorry!" Julie straightened up again, flushing furiously. "I forgot, your arms, oh geez, Tobes, I'm so sorry let me get you some pain killing juice heredrinkthis."

It was more the cup that the blonde raised to Toby's lips than her words (which the brunette was still processing) that prompted her to drink. The liquid looked like a thick green sludge and tasted about as good. She nearly gagged on it, but almost immediately as she swallowed she felt the pain lessen drastically, so she forced herself to drink the entire cup. It helped that Julie just kept tipping it and _didn't stop_ so she sort of had to drink it all.

Finally, after several minutes of wincing, coughing, and generally hating herself for waking up when she could have been nice and blissfully unconcious, Toby took in the bandages that encased her arms from wrists to elbows, the really nice room with the very plush bed she was laying in, and evidence of at least three other people judging from the various cups and personal effects laying around on tables and window sills. Well, what passed for window sills in Bluurble.

Julie just stared at her the entire time with concern etched all over her face, clearly waiting until Toby gave her some sign that she was coherent once more before flopping on her again or something along those lines.

Finally, Toby looked back at her. "Uh... my arms?"

"Yeah..." Julie glanced down at the bandaged appendages. "Apparently whatever you wrote in the Tome - which worked, by the way, Bluurble is fine and the Twins turned the Orb back into a tail and Abbie is like so totally in charge it's really awesome she's so cool - anyway, it got etched into your skin. Like, _deep_, too. So don't move 'em."

"Can't they just yell for Verum and make her use that little air-healy-thing?" Toby grumbled, because as much as the pain-killing juice had eased the ache emanating from her arms, her head was hurting for an entirely different reason.

Julie pulled her chair up and settled down next to Toby's bed, her arms folded on the edge. She looked like a completely different person, Toby realized. She was clad in a leather tunic with a silver breastpiece over it, which seemed to be more ceremonial than functional from the degree of filigree and decorations on it, her blonde hair wrapped around her head in a tight braid. The way she carried herself, too... it reminded Toby of highschool, when the blonde had ruled the school and could make the hallway part around her with just a look. Only, now, it seemed less, well, condescending, and more ... noble. Yes, noble was a good word to describe it though not one Toby would have ever thought to use in conjunction with Julie herself.

"They tried that. Mr. Luft couldn't do anything. Apparently the Tome doesn't want you getting off that easy," she said lightly.

_Figures,_ Toby thought. Her eyes swept the room again before settling back on Julie. "So... uh... who else came?"

Julie's crimson eyes sparkled, her lips curling up at the corners. "You mean did _Theodore_ come?" she teased, and Toby found herself blushing furiously in response. The blonde laughed. "You're so easy. But, no, he couldn't get into the city. Something about some sort of dragony-wall that's keeping him out. He's back in Avalon with Fiz and the others, and he's driving us all insane. You've been sleeping for like three days straight - I came with Dom who's been insufferable too, so I finally made him go help Chieftain Abbie and that Mami chick. They're cordoning off the part of Bluurble where the Rift is, putting up wards to make sure people don't wander into it. Thankfully it doesn't seem to be getting any bigger, but it's not going away, eith-"

Toby had been busy wallowing in her surprisingly intense melancholy at Julie's answer, but a sudden thought sinking its way through made her sit up. Or, rather, try to sit up, realize she wasn't up to it yet, and only manage to flail weakly for a moment. "Three days?"

"Woah, woah, woah, calm down!" Julie reached towards Toby's shoulders, lightly touching with just her fingertips when it was obvious that Toby wasn't going anywhere quite yet. "The dragons got another of the tails. That brings us to, what, four?"

Toby raised her right arm to check the charm bracelet, finding four silver little tails hanging from the silver links. The gesture made fire race along her skin and she winced, slowly lowering her arm back to the bed. "Yeah. Four. But, Julie, the Rifts -"

"- are under control," Julie replied firmly. "Look, you're not going to help anyone by hobbling around, half-dead. Nigelle is helping the dragons locate the next tail and Gem and Verum have figured out a way to tell where the next Rift is going to open, so they're warning people and getting them out of the way before they get hurt. Things are under control. They're not great, of course, but they're under control. So you just have to _rest_, okay?"

Toby lay back down, not bothering to hide the fact she was sulking. "Where was the tail?" she asked, though she had a sinking feeling she already knew.

Julie flicked her hand. "Some giant bird thing had it."

"It's called a roc," Toby corrected with a soft sigh. "They're obsessed with anything that's of value. The more magical power it has or the more valuable it is to people, the more attractive it is to the rocs." So she was seeing the present as well as the past. She thought back to the woman framed in the window and her cold, hate-filled promise,and felt her insides wrench in worry. She forced her mind back to the dragons, remembering Edlyn's limp form on the ground. "Is Edlyn okay?"

Julie stared at Toby. "Yeah, she's fine... Got hit on the head, but it was nothing Mr. Luft couldn't fix right up. How'd you...?" Toby nodded at the Tome that sat like a deceptively normal book on the table next to her head. "Oh," Julie said and lapsed into silence.

They sat without saying anything for several more long moments, Julie staring at her hands and Toby staring at the cieling. It was so strange, how back and forth their relationship seemed now, Toby thought. There were instances where being with Julie was easy and she could almost call the blonde a friend. Then a second later, they'd be staring at each other with the distinct feeling like they were missing the connection by a million miles.

Toby wasn't quite sure what to do about it.

"Look, there's something else..." Julie began slowly. "You... You need to talk to Dominic."

Toby looked back over her. "What?"

"He thinks you hate him, Toby. It's eating him up inside. He's making stupid, rash decisions, and I know it's because he's punishing himself for betraying your trust ... and for it not working and being worth it in the end."

Toby could only stare at the blonde and her open face, concern and worry spread across it for all to see. "I... buh... what? I don't hate him, that's ridiculous!"

Julie leveled a stern look at Toby. "When was the last time you talked to him?"

Toby's mouth worked for a moment to find an answer, but she couldn't. The last time she could remember having a conversation with the dark-haired young man who was her childhood friend and, for a short time, her boyfriend, was the one in which she'd discovered the whole 'Dominic gave you True Love's Kiss' bit was a total farce and it had been Theo, instead, who had Kissed her. Since then, things had happened at a breakneck pace, it seemed, and she hadn't so much as had more than passing words with him.

"Oh," Toby said quietly. No wonder he thought she hated him. Julie just nodded.

"Exactly."

"I don't hate him," she said again, even quieter.

"I know," Julie replied in a matching, quiet tone, leaning forward with her chin propped up on her hand, elbow on the bed. "But he doesn't. You know boys. They're sort of stupid."

Toby cracked a grin at her. "Little bit."

"So. You need to talk to him and make sure he knows you two are good, because I don't think I can handle keeping his butt out of trouble anymore. He's almost as trouble-prone as you are, and that's saying a _lot._"

"Hey!" Toby protested.

The blonde leveled her another look at that shut her right up. "Really, Toby? _How_ many times have you gotten into life or death situations in the last six months?"

Toby started to count, realized it wasn't the point, and then just shrugged. "Hey, it's not my fault. I tried to get this whole thing to just go away when it all first started, but, as evidenced by the giant book I get to lug around, that didn't work too well."

"Maybe if you stopped being so smart about things, you wouldn't be so stupid about the rest," Julie observed drily.

"What?"

"Let's see. If you weren't the only sixteen year old in the _world_ who knows the firecode, you wouldn't have been a Princess in the first place. If you hadn't realized that Rosepink was evil, she would have just made you poof into some bush somewhere like the other Princesses, and you'd be slumbering away happily ignorant and hibernating. If you hadn't realized that Rosepink was still alive and was up to something more than just her final hurrah, we never would have realized the world was being destroyed and you wouldn't be all cut up now. Need I go on?" Julie ticked the examples off on her fingers, a playful grin dancing across her lips.

Toby glared at her. "You know, if you want to play that game, this is all _your_ fault."

Julie gasped. "What? How?"

"If you and your cronies hadn't decided to be stereotypical high school bullies, you never would have crowned me and _none_ of this would have happened."

"Oh, yeah," the blonde said with a tilt of her head. Then she shrugged, the corner of her mouth quirking up. "I had no idea that doing so would open this whole can of worms that would end up with me getting Kitsune-bi spit in my eyes."

Toby couldn't help but grin. "Now we're both freaks."

"Hmph. Maybe, but I still have a better fashion sense than you. _What_ are you _wearing?_" She quite pointedly looked at the baggy jeans and plain white shirt that Toby was clad in. There had been a rather shapeless black knitted sweater overtop, but that seemed to have been removed, probably to get to her arms. It was more than likely ruined, now, what with being soaked with blood and all that. Toby flushed slightly.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

"You look like a bum, not the Storyteller and the eventual savior of the entire world," Julie replied, inspecting her fingernails as she did so. "Would it kill you to wear something with a little bit of shape to it? You're actually sort of pretty, when you try."

"Blech," was Toby's response, complete with the least pretty face she could make. Julie laughed, but abruptly cut off. Lunging to her feet, she drew a long, thin white-bladed sword and leveled it at the window. "Wha-" Toby began, craning her head over the pillows to try and see what was going on. The surface of water that stretched across the window had bowed in, sea weed hanging from the bulb of water. Two tiny grey pebbles bounced around inside, finally coming to rest at the front, where a semblance of a face was taking shape.

Julie leveled her sword right at Dwr's face. Or what passed for its face. "Explain who you are before I sl-"

"Julie! It's okay!" Toby interupted, though part of her was impressed with just how quickly and fluidly the blonde had swung into action. The Knight hesitated, glancing over her shoulder at Toby, who tried to smile as reassuringly as possible. "Julie, this is Dwr, an ondine."

Dwr didn't move, just waiting. Finally, Julie sheathed her sword and stepped back. "All right. But don't try any funny business."

Toby got the distinct impression that Dwr didn't understand 'funny business', but the ondine didn't question it. Instead, it simply oozed the rest of the way into the room, swirling before finally righting itself into a roughly human shape.

_Storyteller,_ Dwr greeted Toby with a bow, then bowed to Julie as well. _Lady Knight. Is this a bad time?_

"Nah. You're saving me from a lecture. What's up, Dwr?"

The ondine craned its head backwards and Toby could see Julie's mouth twitch in an uncomfortable grimace. "Not... literally," Toby said with a sigh. "What can I help you with, is what I meant."

_Ah._ The ondine itself up in order to bow, its long fluid body curved in a graceful arc. _I came to thank you, Storyteller, and give you a Promise. You have saved my home at great cost to yourself. This I Promise you - anything you ask of me I will do, for as long as I am able to serve you. It is the least that I can do for the one who has given so much of herself for us..._

Toby just stared at the ondine for a moment, touched beyond what she could say. The entire time, she'd been trying to repay a debt she thought she owed the creatures of Bluurble; here was one of its own promising her literally anything she asked. The gesture was so much more because of what she knew of Promises in Believe - they carried a weight and a magic of all their own. To Promise something to someone in Believe was so much _more_ than just words. It was a binding force all its own with real, hard consequences if broken.

"Thank you, Dwr. I..." She hung her head for a moment, staring at the bandages swathing her arms in white, then abruptly raised her head. "Would it be rude of me to ask something of you already?"

The ondine glanced at Julie, then back at Toby. _Of course not. What may I do?_

Toby licked her lips, searching for the best way to begin. Finally, she simply plunged into it, describing to the ondine and Julie the vision she'd seen, of the woman and the tall buildings behind her. She skipped over the fact that the woman had been able to know she was there and talk to her, instead focusing on the fact she had had a white rose pendant on her chest - exactly the same sigil that Mami Wata had mentioned the army currently occupying Ys having on their shields.

"She's connected. I just don't know how. I know this is a lot to ask of you, but I think you stand the best chance of getting into Ys and seeing if it's her that I saw." Toby trailed off, keenly aware of just how thin her logic was. She held onto it desperately, however. The Story had never given her a tidbit that she couldn't use before. It'd never supplied her with something that wasn't _important_ somehow. She was banking on this not being an exception to that rule - and hoping desperately it hadn't been the woman's own power, drawing her into a trap.

_All waters lead to the Sea - if this woman is in Ys, I will find her, Storyteller, and learn as much of her as I can._

"Just... be careful Dwr. _Very_ careful. If she's somehow connected to Rosepink she's probably very powerful. We don't know what sort of safeguards she has in place."

_Of course, Storyteller._ The ondine dipped in a bow again and Toby had a sudden surge of regret at her request. Who was she to ask the ondine to risk its life on a wild hunch of hers? That sort of responsbility was Mami Wata's, or King Fizzybink's, not hers. She'd done nothing to deserve this except stumble into things over and over again.

Still, the woman's words echoed in her ears. She knew who Toby was, and that meant she probably knew who was important to Toby. If they were potential targets, Toby wanted to know who this woman was as soon as possible.

"Thanks, Dwr," she said one more time, weakly. It didn't seem like enough. The ondine dipped down in a graceful curve once more.

_It is my honor to help you, Storyteller._

It stretched, tipping backwards and melding into the smooth plane of water held in the coral window frame, disappearing with a single ripple. Toby watched as a current caught the sea weed, whipping it from sight even as the pebbles dropped slowly to the ground. A moment went by, then Julie cleared her throat.

"Well. That was... weird."

"You spit fire and make illusions become real. How is a being of pure water any weirder than that?" Toby replied, grumpily.

Julie folded her arms over her chest and leveled a vaguely annoyed, mostly stern look at Toby. The brunette had to resist the urge to make a face at her. "Torn up arms doesn't give you the right to be totally cranky. I didn't mean Dwr, I meant _you_ and your little story."

Toby schooled her face into as innocently bewildered as she could manage. "I don't control what the Story shows me..."

"I know you, Toby. You're nothing if not thorough. But the story you just told us had holes so big you could thread an elephant through them." Julie eyed her up and down slowly. "What are you not telling?"

It was Toby's turn to flush, honestly bewildered this time by Julie's attention to details she'd thought beyond the blonde - especially details about herself. "I don't - that is... It's not..." She trailed off, dropping her eyes down to the bandages that lined her arms. Why didn't she want to tell Julie and the others? Maybe it was because everything seemed so dire already... if she told them they had an enemy that was potentially strong enough to manipulate the Story itself, it would add even more of a burden to those tasked with saving so much already. The woman's words rang in her ears again. She knew who Toby was and who was important to her, and with Toby travelling all over the world there was no way of protecting the people she loved. She couldn't do it by herself. Squaring her shoulders, she looked back up at Julie.

"Okay. If I tell you, you can't tell _anyone_ else. _Especially_ Theo. It'll just worry him and ... I don't want that."

Julie perched on the edge of the bed, blonde head canted to one side like a quizzical bird. "What is it?"

"She... spoke to me. Through the Story. Like... Like she knew I was there, knew I was watching. And she knew who I was, Julie."

"The Storyteller?"

"No, she knew _me_. Tobias. She..." Her throat was dry. She swallowed around the parched rock lodged at the rear of her throat. "... threatened me. Specifically. She said she'd come after the people I loved. Which is Theo and Mom and -"

"Dom." Julie went several shades paler under her perfect tan, pressing her lips together in a thin line. Toby nodded once.

"You're with him a lot now. You have to watch out for him, Julie. And for the others - especially my mom. I don't know who the woman was or if she's even capable of harming him or the others, but... I mean, he's my best friend. And my mom has no clue about any of this, she's a total sitting duck. You have to keep him and my mom safe..." The rock got too big and cut Toby off, leaving her blinking furiously in her choked-up silence.

"I will," Julie said quietly, her crimson eyes hard with a sincere sort of determination. It was a look that immediately eased a little of the boulder at the base of Toby's throat. The brunette nodded quietly in mute thanks as the blonde slid into her seat at the side of Toby's bed once more. "But you should really tell everyone else about this. At least tell Fiz, so he can send other scouts to see. I mean, we knew about the army in Ys, but if this woman is that strong..."

"No, no... She didn't threaten Fiz, just me. And for all I know, the Story just showed me her talking to herself or - or a picture of me on the wall or something like that. If she's really that dangerous, Dwr will find out and then we'll tell the others."

Julie glanced at the wall of water that the elemental had disappeared through, lips pressed together in a tight line. "Do you really trust it that much?"

"Absolutely," Toby said, and found to her surprise that she was telling the truth.

Julie sighed. "All right. Fine. But if I see even a hint of danger to the others, I'm telling them."

"Deal."

The blonde heaved another sigh, straightening up. "Well seeing as you're awake enough to weave complicated plots like this, I might as well go tell Verum and the others that you're ready to travel back to Avalon."

Toby tried to push herself up, realized she looked ridiculous trying to do so without using her arms, and abandoned the attempt. Finally she just huffed in reluctance and stayed laying down, trying to exude eagerness even from her recumbent posture.

"I'd like to not be under countless tons of water. That'd be _awesome_."

Julie snorted. "Please, you just want Theo to dote on you as he most certainly will." Ignoring the crimson that graced cheek to cheek across Toby's face, she settled her sword more comfortably on her waist and flicked her hand over her shoulder. "I'll be right back, okay? Try to stay out of trouble, all right? I know it'll be a tall order, but give it a go."

Toby stuck her tongue out at Julie's back.

The blonde didn't even turn around, but tossed over her shoulder, in a voice colored with amusement - "Mature, Toby. Real mature."


	10. Chapter 9

**(( Hey again guys. :) Just as a side note, if any of the descriptions of places (ie, Avalon) from here on out seem to have changed, that's because I've sort of gone back and completely revamped and redone a LOT of the world as a whole. So know that it's probably intentional. :)**

**Along that vein, I have about 20 pages of the first book completely re-written and I'm interested in having a couple of people read it and give really good feedback back (like, what worked, what might be better changed, overall thoughts, idea). So if you are interested in beta reading the first three-ish chapters of book 1, completely rewritten, shoot me a PM.**

**As always, please let me know what you think! Oh, and have some of everyone's favorite dragon-boy. Enjoy. ;) ))**

9.

Getting her back to Avalon turned out to be much easier than Toby was afraid it was going to be. In the end, she got to lay back and relax while everyone around her bustled about preparing for their departure. She only had to muscle her way to her feet at the very last second to be bubbled back to the Fairy Courts by Verum. By that time she'd had another cup full of the pungent green liquid - which, by now, she was sure was the magical equivalent of morphine - and her arms weren't bothering her a bit. In fact, she found she wasn't bothered by anything at all. End of the world? No problem, as long as they all had little happy cups of emerald sludge.

Barely a hiccuping pop! later and she was standing in the central courtyard of Avalon, sunshine dancing through the ceiling of tangled rose vines and dappling the grass and gently bobbing flowers around her. She allowed herself a happy sigh as the rest of her retinue popped into existence around her. Bandaged arms and all, it was a good day. They even had a welcoming committee of a dozen odd Fairies and other magicals, a couple of whom Toby was sure she'd recognized if she could be bothered to try a bit (she couldn't). Oh, look, they'd even brought her a chair with nice broad arms so she could sit down and rest. This was _awesome_. She should do this more often!

_Though,_ she amended as she caught sight of Thane and Devon striding towards her through the assorted menagerie, their faces creased with worry. _Maybe that's the mysterious green liquid talking..._

"Toby, are you all right?" were the first words out of Thane's mouth, his eyes sweeping over her even as his hands gripped her shoulders, as if that would secure her in the case of any additional harm, especially in the form of her falling over again.

"Hey - yeah. No problem! I just saved an entire city. Anyone tell you that? I think I want a plaque."

The tightness cornering the edges of Thane's eyes and mouth eased even as an uncertain smile made its way onto his lips. Instead of responding, however, he did something that Toby wasn't expecting, even though in retrospect that was probably also due to the green liquid - he hugged her. Tightly.

_Wow, he managed to not even hit my arms,_ was Toby's first thought. Followed rapidly by, _oh god why is he hugging me?_

Thane had already released her when a familiar flash of blue caught her eyes followed by a still-yet novel skippy little flipflop from somewhere in her chest and/or stomach area. She was still incapable of formulating a suitable response to Thane's hug, nevermind to explain anything that had happened in the past couple of days, when Theo's eyes dropped her from her face to regions lower and, unfortunately, quite obviously and possibly overdramatically bandaged. His eyes didn't go pale with anger - they lit with it, a maelstrom of azure-and-teal fury.

Toby was still going _Theo Theo Theo insides BEHAVE _ and Verum was trying to intervene to explain but those ruffles created so much drag -

- and Theo decked Thane.

Everything, including Toby's breathing, stopped for one shocked, silent beat, as the dark-haired dragon hit the dirt. Then - _woosh!_ fire.

A spiral of fire barely missed Toby and instead spent itself against Theo's chest, embers bursting like little fireworks in every direction. Thane was on his feet again, hands already on Devon's chest and it seemed to Toby like she was roiling in her skin, rage and her dragon form pushing at the surface barely holding them back.

Self-preservation had never been one of Toby's strongest points, so before anyone else could stop her, she was in the middle of it all, bellowing at Devon, "_stop it!_"

The red-head jerked back in surprise, rage faltering for one key second. Into that chink, Thane said, with the utmost calm, "Devon. Wait for me at the caves. Go."

His voice allowed for no disobedience, but the snarl that rose from Devon's throat was as close to rebellion as Toby had ever heard. For a long moment the brunette wasn't sure that whatever hold Thane had on the crimson dragon's actions would be strong enough to hold her back. Sucking in a deep breath, Devon finally stepped back, hissing in objection.

Thane kept one hand up, gaze unfaltering, and Devon left in a spectacular twist of fire.

Only then did Thane turn back to Theo, eyes a sea of agitated colors all twisting together despite the stiff composure of his face. Theo's shirt was burned nearly to pieces, but other than that he'd seemingly escaped unscathed - but no less livid.

"I knew this was a mistake, trusting you-"

"Cyrrus-son, please. Calm yourself."

"On your life, you swore to me!"

Thane held himself still and quiet in the face of Theo's fury, a mountain as of yet unmoved. It was certainty, not fear, that framed his shoulders as he locked eyes with the azure dragon. "I did not betray my oath, Cyrrus-son."

"Does _that_ really look like protecting her?"

The finger jabbed in Toby's direction drew everyone's eyes to her battered arms. She resisted the urge to fold them across her chest, more for the fact that she wasn't sure that even magical pain-killing juice could handle that then out of any desire to maintain a facade.

Guilt fractured Thane's careful composure, jerking at the corner of his mouth. "... there was nothing I could have done, Cyrrus-son."

Theo's shoulders drew in, like a fighter readying himself to launch. When he spoke, his voice was a snarl. "Get. Out."

"Theo!" Toby gasped, stepping forward as if to move to Thane's side. Before she'd even finished moving, however, Thane had turned on his heel and was striding across the Courtyard, towards the green-and-gold eyed twins who'd appeared as if summoned and were waiting by the front gate. Toby watched him go for a moment before spinning around.

"What the hell Theodore?"

He blinked vivid eyes at her, the air in front of his mouth rippling still as if the heat from his breath was only barely being contained. "He promised me you'd be safe-"

"It wasn't his choice! I did what I had to do to save those people and no one - not even you - could have stopped me. I'm not some swooning flower and I'm certainly no goddamned damsel in distress!" She jabbed a furious finger in his chest. "So if you can't handle it, fly off, lizard boy!"

"Tobes-" he began, but she was in no mood to listen to him.

Instead, it was her turn to stalk off, towards the halls of Avalon and the room she was hoping was still hers. Otherwise, this might be a bit awkward.

_Goddamn,_ she thought as she did her best to continue storming off. _I was in such a good mood, too._

Thankfully, when she navigated the twisting halls and convoluted set of side halls and even the random indoor roundelay to her room, she found it prepared for her and -most thankfully - completely empty. Especially because she was pretty sure after three days of just laying around mostly comatose, her body wasn't quite yet ready for the amount of energy that it took to have a massive fight with one's boyfriend and then storm off without some dire consequences. Consequences that mostly seemed to be the floor doing its best imitation of a swing dancer underneath her feet.

She slid the satchel holding the Tome off of her shoulder, setting it on a table to one side. Forget elegance, she flopped into the middle of the circular bed in the center of the room, and sighed. Loudly.

"Why are boys so _stupid?_"

_When you find someone to answer that, can you also ask them why bunnies hop but frogs leap?_ Two black-tipped, silver ears were sticking up from a pile of crumpled fabric that Toby had passed off as just a blanket or hastily abandoned dress. Instead, Demora's face perked up over the folds, complete with a languorous yawn as the Kitsune stretched out.

"Demora? What are you doing here?" Toby asked, propping herself up on one elbow.

_Everyone's all frantic and I can't remember why, but then they sent my kitsune-tsuki under the water and humidity does terrible things to my fur. I thought I'd just curl up and wait for you to get back. _She stretched out on her stomach, a silver fox blinking crimson eyes up at Toby. _I knew you would, eventually, so I took a nap._

"Did you even tell anyone where you were? They must be worried..." Demora wasn't paying attention, though. She'd caught sight of the three silver charms dangling on the delicate chain around Toby's wrist. The brunette followed the fox-spirit's gaze, then looked back at her. "Can I... uh... give them back now? Or do I have to wait for all of them?"

_I don't know. Try,_ was the Kitsune's easy response. Toby hesitated for a moment before finally deciding, hey, what the hell. It wasn't like things could go much worse than they had with writing in the Tome.

It took a couple of moments of dedicated trying to unfasten the bracelet from around her wrist. When she finally succeeded, it slipped from her grasp and dropped onto the bed in front of the Kitsune. Demora leaned forward, touching each of the little silver charms with her nose. Toby readied a hand to shield her eyes, prepared for a display of magical pyrotechnics... but all that happened was each charm shivered with a pale-blue light and disappeared.

_Ah!_ Demora suddenly exclaimed, ears standing straight up. Toby realized with a start that where, previously, the little silver fox-spirit had only had scars on her backside, there were now three long, bushy, silver tails tipped with black just like her ears. She flicked them, turning her gaze to the Storyteller. _Now I remember how!_

Toby didn't get a chance to ask what Demora had remembered, for blue Kitsune-bi abruptly rushed over the silver fox-spirit's form, obscuring her from view. A second later, a slim Japanese woman with slanted crimson eyes, perked fox ears, and long, raven's wing hair was sitting on the bed in front of Toby. There were red markings on her face - a moon between her eyes and red curves on each of her cheeks - and a silver furry throw like a fox pelt wrapped around her body and draped over her arms.

"There. That's -" the human-looking Demora paused, scrunching up her face and wiggling her mouth around experimentally. "_Wooaaaheeewooyeeeooo. Mou iie, _ that's odd. Haven't spoken outloud in ... _ano..._ a thousand years?"

Toby leaned forward, looking over the new version of Demora with obvious interest. Despite the rational part of her brain, she couldn't help but hope... If the fox-spirit could remember how to shape-shift, maybe she'd remembered enough of the process to slow, or even stop, the tears between the Realms. "What else do you remember?"

Demora gazed at Toby with a small smile. "Not enough, I'm afraid. It's... very odd. I only know a third of what I should and that's not enough to know what I don't. It's very difficult to explain..."

Toby deflated slightly. "So... no saving the world yet?"

"I'm sorry, Storyteller. But... _ano,_ I think we need to speak to our good Fairy King nonetheless." The slim woman stood, the three tails behind her flicking with the agitation that Toby could feel sliding off of the Kitsune. "I'm afraid I remember something of a most concerning nature..."

Toby forced herself off of the bed with obvious effort. No rest for the wicked, she thought drily to herself. Oh well, she really didn't _want_ to sit and stew over her boyfriend's stupidity, anyway. She had just struggled to her feet when she noticed the Kitsune staring at her with a frown in her face. "What?" she demanded, perhaps more defensively than was strictly necessary.

"Storyteller... Please, please... Do not be angered by this question." The Japanese magical folded her hands in front of her and regarded Toby evenly. "... when was the last time you bathed?"

Toby felt herself go red from the tips of her toes to the tip of her nose. "Uh..." she rubbed at the back of her neck. "Probably ... like four days ago at this point?"

"_Mou iie!_ The end of the world can wait. How can you save the world when you smell so much like something... ucky? You stay here. I'll get everything ready, Storyteller!"

The Kitsune sprang to her feet and in a few short moments Toby could see steam curling from underneath the door that lead down to her private bath. Toby spent her own time carefully untying her shoes and selecting an outfit that she figured she'd be capable of getting on over her bandages without too much trouble.

"_Hai, douzo..._" Demora wasted no time in shepherding the young brunette into the bath as soon as it was ready, half-cajoling, half-pulling clothes off of her as they went. "In, in, in. Now soak! Don't fall asleep! No drowning! And keep your arms out of the water or they'll start bleeding again. I'll be down in a little bit to brush your hair."

Before Toby could utter a word of protest, the Kitsune was gone, and the brunette was left to finish disrobing in slightly-stupefied peace. She sank onto the smooth stone surrounding the basin of steaming water, breathing in the fragrant steam and sliding her legs in with a happy grumble to herself. She hadn't realized just how disgusting she felt until the Kitsune had mentioned it. A bath would do her a world of good.

Lifting her arms, she stared balefully at the wrappings from wrist to elbow. These had to go.

Carefully, she peeled the strips of fabric back from her arms, dropping them in a tangled pile to one side. Thankfully, the gruesome sight of layers of caked blood and pus and mangled flesh that her mind had conjured seemed to be in error. Instead, the smooth surfaces of the inside of both of her forearms were marred by a single line of writing that looked like it'd been cut into her very flesh. She'd expected to see Abbie's name, from what Julie said. What she found, instead, was an elegant script in a language that Toby didn't recognize and couldn't decipher. There were only half a dozen words - three on her left inner arm, four on her right - but the words were completely unknown to her. She'd have to have Verum translate for her later.

She ran her fingers along the crimson letters, puckered with the scabs that'd formed, the flesh of her arms pink and painful but not as red and angry as Toby might have expected. There was no sign of trauma at all - just those letters, cut deep into her flesh.

Nothing to it, she reasoned. What was done was done, and what was more important, the people of Atlantis were safe and, for the most part, had homes to go back to tonight. It seemed worth a bit of pain on Toby's part, especially because she'd nearly been the reason that it'd all been lost. Even now, she couldn't help but feel responsible for the actions that had led to the Realms being torn apart, like there was something more she could have - should have - done.

"Stop it, Tobes," she told herself. "Just take a damn bath and get on to business."

With that, she pushed herself into the steaming water, plunging underneath the steaming surface. Time to scrub the last couple of days away. She uncorked and sniffed at every single one of the multitude of glass and crystal bottles, finally selecting one that smelled good but not _too_ girly. Lathering up, she sighed in happiness as she splashed and scrubbed the past four days and their accumulated grime and dirt away.

It was only then, in the solitude of the bath with its translucent steam curtains and the relaxation of finally being clean that she realized that her headache was gone. Not just pulled back into the recesses of her mind, but full-out, completely gone. After months of having it as her constant companion, it was an eerie sensation.

Momentary panic gripped her. Did that mean she'd lost it? Was that what the strange writing on her arms meant? Had she messed with the Story and screwed it up so bad that she'd never get it back?

She was mid-crisis when there was the rustle of the woven-moss curtains behind her and she turned to see, taking in deep-blue eyes and spiky matching blue hair.

"Th-Theo?"

Her cheeks were quite suddenly giving the bath water a run for its money as far as temperature was concerned; she was keenly aware of the very thin layer of bubbles scattering across the water's surface around her and the crystal clear water in the rest of the deep pool.

"Tobes, there you are." Relief creased its way across his face, his voice as contrite as she'd ever heard from him.

"What are you doing?" Toby demanded, folding her arms across her chest, wounded or not. Funny how relative that pain seemed right now, especially face to face with pure and unadulterated mortification.

"I just..." he heaved a sigh, running one hand through his hair. "Shards, Tobes, I didn't mean- well, I did mean it, but not like... I mean, not to make you mad, I was just so worried-"

Toby stared at him. He was... apologizing? Or at least trying to. In her bathroom. While she was bathing.

"Theodore."

"What?" He turned those brilliant blue eyes to her and she felt the heat rush down through her body this time. She sank further down into the water, glaring at him furiously. She wasn't sure how strong her voice was, but hopefully the intensity of her bonafide, certain _death glare_ would be making up for it.

"I'm naked."

And her boyfriend - her several hundred year old boyfriend who quoted Chaucer and knew more about ancient historical figures than most history professors - looked over her before shrugging once. "Yeah? What, you want me to come in too?"

He went to pull his shirt off and Toby did the only reasonable, logical thing a girl like her could do in that situation (besides drown herself). She hurled the closest bottle of sickly sweet Fairy oil at his head and shrieked loud enough for them to hear all the way back in the mundane Realm.

"GET _OUT!_"

Theo made a startled noise like a squawk, ducking and scrabbling for the doorway. Toby sent another bottle at his fast-disappearing heels for good measure as he disappeared up the stairs.

Only to be replaced by a wide-eyed Demora only seconds later.

"_Kamis,_ Toby. What's wrong? Theodore just took off like there were hell hounds on his trail..."

Toby, who'd half risen from the water in her embarrassment-fueled tantrum, sank back down with a squeak. Upon determining that no bottles or other inanimate objects were aerial-bound in her direction, Demora ventured further in, her brow broadcasting quite clearly her concern. "Toby?" she ventured once more.

The brunette sank as far into teh water as her ridiculous need to breathe would allow, staring at the Kitsune with vividly red cheeks.

"... boys are stupid."


End file.
